A US service member and a US civilian were killed in an insider attack near a coalition base in Kabul, Afghanistan. Three more Americans were injured in the attack, and the assailant was killed. The names of the Americans have not been released, pending next of kin notification. “Anytime we lose a member of our team, it is deeply painful,” Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US Forces-Afghanistan and Operation Resolute Support, said in a statement. “Our sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and the units of those involved in this incident.” The group was conducting duties “as part of the larger NATO mission to train, advise, and assist the Afghan security services,” the statement says.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.