afghan--KABUL: A suspected policeman on Sunday killed four NATO troops in Afghanistan, the US-led military said, the second apparent attack in which Afghan security forces have killed their Western allies in two days.
Sunday's deaths took to 51 the number of Western soldiers killed in so-called "insider attacks" since the start of the year, which threaten to jeopardise Western plans to train Afghan forces to take over when they leave in 2014.
NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) provided few details but said Sunday's incident took place in southern Afghanistan, a hotbed of a Taliban-led insurgency, and that it was "suspected to involve members of the Afghan police".
Two British soldiers died in a similar attack on Saturday in the southern province of Helmand.
There have been more than 30 such attacks so far this year, according to an AFP count. Most of the casualties have been Americans.
Afghanistan's defence ministry said earlier this month that it had arrested or sacked hundreds of Afghan soldiers for suspected insurgency links.
Afghan and NATO officials say, however, about 75 percent of the attacks are not connected to insurgents and are mostly triggered by misunderstandings and cultural differences among the Afghans and their Western allies.