meanwhile... this was not a big news item last week, obviously because it occurred at the same time of the devastating tornadoes and all the birtherism crap
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S.-led coalition on Saturday released initial findings of an April 27 attack at the Kabul airport in which a veteran Afghan military pilot opened fire, killing 8 U.S. troops and an American civilian contractor who had been training the nascent Afghan air force.
The shooting was the deadliest attack by a member of the Afghan security forces, or an insurgent impersonating them, on coalition troops or Afghan soldiers or policemen. Seven of the 8 U.S. airmen killed were commissioned officers.
The gunman was severely wounded by gunfire and was bleeding heavily when he left the room where most, but not all, of the trainers were killed, according to a senior NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is not complete. The gunman was found dead in another part of the building, he said.
The attack occurred at an Afghan facility, the air force headquarters, so the usual coalition weapons procedures would not have been in place and the trainers would have had their weapons — with magazines in place — in their possession, the official said.
The trainers would not have had to load their guns to defend themselves, he said. All the NATO trainers killed were armed at the time of the attack, he said.
According to the initial findings, the gunman appeared to be carrying two handguns.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, but the coalition said it has uncovered no evidence to suggest that the insurgency was behind it.
"At this point in the investigation, it appears that the gunman was acting alone," the coalition said. "Beyond that, no Taliban connection with the gunman has been discovered. However, the investigation is still ongoing and we have not conclusively ruled out that possibility."
Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi declined comment Saturday, saying the joint investigation by the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan and the Afghan government was still under way.
Killed in the attack were:
-- Maj. Jeffrey O. Ausborn, 41, of Gadsden, Alabama.
-- Lt. Col. Frank D. Bryant Jr., 37, of Knoxville, Tennessee.
-- Maj. Philip D. Ambard, 44, of Edmonds, Washington.
-- Maj. David L. Brodeur, 34, of Auburn, Massachusetts.
-- Maj. Raymond G. Estelle II, 40, of New Haven, Connecticut
-- Capt. Nathan J. Nylander, 35, of Hockley, Texas.
-- Capt. Charles A. Ransom, 31, of Midlothian, Virginia.
-- Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown, 33, of Deltona, Florida.
The civilian contractor was James McLaughlin Jr., 55, of Santa Rosa, California. McLaughlin was a helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft pilot who spent 32 years in the Army before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2007. In recent years, he trained Afghan helicopter pilots as an employee of L-3 MPRI, a consulting company based in Alexandria, Virginia.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan police officers Saturday in southern Uruzgan province, said provincial spokesman Ahmad Milad Mudassir. Further details were not immediately available.
The Gadsden Times reports that Ausburn was deployed to the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, where he served as a C-27 instructor pilot with the 99th Flying Training Squadron. Ausburn's wife, Suzanna Ausborn, told the Gadsden Times that her husband volunteered last year to go to Afghanistan to teach new Afghan pilots how to fly the C-27 aircraft and that he was in a meeting when the attack occurred.
In addition to his wife, Ausborn is survived by 5 children, Emily, 15; Eric, 12; Shelby, 10; Mitchell Maloy, 21; and Summer Maloy, 17. |
