US soldier killed in Afghan 'insider attack' identified

Washington, July 9  The Pentagon has identified the soldier killed in an apparent insider attack Sin Afghanistan as Army Cpl. Joseph Maciel of California.

Maciel was killed and two other American service members were wounded on Saturday night in what US military officials called an "apparent insider attack" while they were advising local forces at an Afghan military facility in the town of Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province, reports CNN.

This is the third combat fatality in Afghanistan this year.

Maciel was assigned to 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Benning, Georgia, the Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday.

Maciel was part of Operation Freedom's Sentinel, which conducts counter-terrorism missions targeting terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan and also focuses on building up local Afghan forces.

Maciel's task force was deployed in support of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, a newly established unit that is focused on advising and bolstering local troops and is seen as critical to America's strategy in Afghanistan, the statement said.

The NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, Resolute Support, said that the incident was under investigation and that the two wounded US service members are being treated and are in stable condition.

The last insider attack occurred in August 2017, CNN reported. 

In that incident, a Romanian NATO soldier was injured.

The last insider attack that resulted in a US casualty occurred in June last year.