American killed in shootout with Afghan soldier

A U.S. service member was killed when an Afghan soldier opened fire on an army base in Western Afghanistan on Tuesday, a senior Aghan official says.

Afghan Gen. Jalander Shah Bahnam, the corps commander for the Afghan National Army's western district, told the Associated Press that NATO soldiers had tried to prevent the Afghan soldier from approaching an area where an allied helicopter was about to land.

He said that according to initial reports, the soldier became angry and opened fire. Allied troops and the soldier's Afghan colleagues returned fire and wounded him, Bahnam said.

Two Italian soldiers suffered minor wounds in the incident and went back to work immediately, Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said in a statement.

NATO would only confirm that a U.S. service member died in a shooting incident in western Afghanistan's Badghis province.