US Military Service Man Killed and Another Wounded in Afghanistan

A single United States service member was killed and one other was wounded on Saturday in the Afghan capital of Kabul. It was what the US-backed coalition referred to as an apparent insider attack. 

According to reports, the attacker was a member of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. He was immediately killed by other Afghan forces. 

Other service members were evacuated to Bagram Airfield and the wounded service member is undergoing medical treatment and is in stable condition, according to authorities. 

Neither service member has yet been identified and there are no further details released. The attack is being investigated. 

This tragedy comes just over two weeks after the US Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley was wounded in an insider attack. He oversees the NATO military advisory mission in southern Afghanistan. The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, US Army Gen. Scott Miller, was also present but escaped uninjured. Two powerful Afghan officials were killed in that attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Afghan government currently controls or influences 55.5% of the country’s districts. This marks the lowest level recorded since the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction began tracking district control in November 2015, the report said.

This report and the figures within it offer a glimpse into the Afghan army’s loosening grip in the face of a determined, sustained Taliban insurgency and a bleak outlook for America’s involvement in the war. This was is now in its 17th year.

Meanwhile, civilian deaths in Afghanistan keep rising. An escalation in insurgent attacks and fighting between the Taliban and government forces has helped drive the number of civilian deaths this year to its highest point on record, according to UN figures released last month.

There have been a total of 2.798 civilian deaths across the nation of Afghanistan for the first nine months of 2018. This is an increase of the number in the previous year, according to the United Nations.