Three NATO soldiers were shot dead by Afghan security forces personnel in the latest round of insider killings which have raised deep concerns about the reliability of NATO's local allies and their ability to keep the peace.
So-called insider attacks have mounted recently as tension between Afghanistan and its foreign backers rises over a series of incidents, including the burning of Korans at a NATO base and a massacre of 17 villagers for which a US soldier has been charged.
An Afghan army soldier killed two British soldiers at their headquarters in Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand, Britain and NATO officials said.
A local policeman shot dead another foreign soldier in the east.
The attacker in Lashkar Gah was shot dead by NATO soldiers, the alliance and the governor's office said.
No group has claimed responsibility for either attack. The Helmand provincial governor's office said that the base where the British soldiers were attacked housed military and civilian reconstruction teams.
The latest deaths in Helmand bring to 407 the number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Before today’s attack, 13 members of the NATO-led force had been killed this year in what appeared to be attacks by members of Afghan forces, the commander of US and NATO forces, General John Allen, told a US Senate committee last week.
About 70 members of the NATO force have been killed in 42 insider attacks from May 2007 to January this year.
