A two-star general was shot dead in Afghanistan on Tuesday and 15 other soldiers wounded when a man dressed in an Afghan Army uniform opened fire on Tuesday at a military academy.
A German brigadier general was among the wounded and this is the first time since the Vietnam conflict that a two-star American general has been killed in combat.
It is understood a number of Britons were wounded in the attack but their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
Details about the attack at Camp Qargha, a base west of the capital, Kabul, weren't immediately clear, but American generals usually have a security detail.
General Mohammmad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry, said a 'terrorist in an army uniform' opened fire on both local and international troops.
Azimi said the shooter had been killed and that three Afghan army officers were wounded.
A US official said one American soldier was killed and "about a dozen" of the wounded were Americans, but declined to comment further.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss details of the attack by name on the record.
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Smoke: The military academy base after an Afghan soldier opened fire on NATO troops inside the premises, on the outskirts of Kabul, August 5, 2014
Move! A NATO soldier opens fire in an apparent warning shot in the vicinity of journalists near the main gate of Camp Qargha, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014
Attack: An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier gestures at a car at the gate of a British-run military training academy Camp Qargha, in Kabul August 5, 2014
Germany's military said 15 NATO soldiers were wounded in an assault launched 'probably by internal attackers.'
The wounded included a German brigadier general, who the German military said was receiving medical treatment and was 'not in a life-threatening condition.'
NATO said it was investigating the attack, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned as 'cowardly.'
It is 'an act by the enemies who don't want to see Afghanistan have strong institutions,' Karzai said in a statement.
Qargha is known as 'Sandhurst in the sand'— referring to the famed British military academy — as British forces oversaw building the officer school and its training program.
In a statement, the British Defense Ministry said it was investigating the incident and that "it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
After the shooting, a soldier in a NATO convoy leaving Camp Qargha fired his pistol in an apparent warning shot in the vicinity of Associated Press journalists and pedestrians nearby. No one was wounded.
The Qargha shooting comes as so-called 'insider attacks' — incidents in which Afghan security turn on their NATO partners — largely dropped last year. In 2013, there were 16 deaths in 10 separate attacks. In 2012, such attacks killed 53 coalition troops in 38 separate attacks.
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Patrol: Afghanistan National Army soldiers stand guard at a gate of Camp Qargha, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014
Such 'insider attacks' are sometimes claimed by the Taliban insurgency as proof of their infiltration. Others are attributed to personal disputes or resentment by Afghans who have soured on the continued international presence in their country more than a dozen years after the fall of the Taliban's ultra-conservative Islamic regime.
Foreign aid workers, contractors and other civilians in Afghanistan are increasingly becoming targets of violence as the U.S.-led military coalition continues a withdrawal to be complete by the end of the year.
In eastern Paktia province, an Afghan police guard also exchanged fire Tuesday with NATO troops near the governor's office, provincial police chief Gen. Zelmia Oryakhail said. The guard was killed in the gunfight, he said. It wasn't clear if the two incidents were linked and police said they were investigating the incident.
Meanwhile Tuesday, a NATO helicopter strike targeting missile-launching Taliban militants killed four civilians in western Afghanistan, an Afghan official said Tuesday. NATO said they were investigating the attack.
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