Pictured: American two-star general, 55, shot dead by 'insider' at Afghan military training facility in attack that left 15 troops wounded

Major General Harold J. Greene shot dead in Afghanistan after man opens fire at military academy

ISAF, the international force in Afghanistan, said the attack took place at a British military training academy in the capital



Seven Americans, five British and one German soldiers among the reported injured

One British soldier is thought to be from London, Sky News reports



Their conditions are unknown but many are described as 'critical'

The gunman was using a light machine gun according to a US official



This is the first time that an American general has been killed in action since Vietnam

Shot dead: Major General Harold J. Greene, of Falls Church, Virginia, is the highest ranking member of the US armed forces to die in action since Vietnam

Harold J. Greene, the two-star Army general who on Tuesday became the highest-ranking U.S. military officer to be killed in either of America's post-9/11 wars, was an engineer who rose through the ranks as an expert in developing and fielding the Army's war materiel. He was on his first deployment to a war zone.

Greene was killed when a gunman believed to be an Afghan soldier opened fire at a military academy near Kabul. More than a dozen other coalition soldiers were wounded, including about eight Americans, according to early accounts of the attack. It was among the bloodiest insider attacks of the war in Afghanistan.

The Army's top soldier, Gen. Ray Odierno, issued a statement Tuesday evening saying the Army's thoughts and prayers were with Greene's family as well as the families of those injured in the attack.



Maj. General Greene who is survived by his wife and two children, is the highest ranking member of the military to die in a war zone since Vietnam.



In a 34-year career that began at Fort Polk, Louisiana, Greene, a native of upstate New York, earned a reputation as an inspiring leader with a sense of humility. He had been in Afghanistan since January, serving as deputy commander of a support command called the Combined Security Transition Command, in Kabul.



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Proud: Gen. Harold J. Greene at the Fort Myer Officers Club August 30 with his daughter, Amelia and his wife, Susan

Patriotic: The front door of the home of Maj. Gen. Harold Greene is seen with an American flag hanging

Press: Army Lt. Col. Juanita Chang speaks to the media on behalf of the family of Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, outside his home in Falls Church, Virginia

At the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Greene was serving at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and when the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 he was a student at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Greene flourished in the less glamorous side of the Army that develops, tests, builds and supplies soldiers with equipment and technology. That is a particularly difficult job during wartime, since unconventional or unanticipated battlefield challenges like roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, call for urgent improvements in equipment.

In 2009-2011, for example, he served as deputy commanding general of the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command and senior commander of the Natick Soldier System Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. During that tour of duty he gained the rank of brigadier general, and at his promotion ceremony in December 2009 he was lauded for his leadership skills and ability to inspire those around him.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes applauded Greene for a 'sense of self, a sense of humility' and an exemplary work ethic, according to an account of the promotion ceremony published by the Times Union of Albany, New York, which called Greene an Albany native.

'In every job I had we got things done that I think made our Army better, and it was done by other people,' Greene was quoted as saying. 'All I did was try to pull people in the right direction and they went out and did great things.'

He was on a routine visit to the British operated training facility just outside the capital Kabul when a man dressed in the uniform of the Afghan military opened fire.

Wife and daughter: Research, Development and Engineering Command Deputy Commanding General Brig. Gen. Harold J. Greene (second left) prepares to be promoted as he stands at attention next to Lt. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, Maj. Gen. Nickolas G. Justice, Program Executive Officer for the Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications at Fort Monmouth, N.J., his wife Col. Sue Myers, Study Director at the U.S. Army War College, and his daughter Amelia Greene

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

Greene and his wife, Susan, lived in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Virginia, where neighbors recalled he would often go for morning runs, The Washington Post reported. The Greenes' son Matthew also is in the Army and their daughter, Amelia, recently graduated from Binghamton University in New York.



At the Greenes home, a Blue Star Flag hangs from the door according to The Washington Post and Greene's family have yet to make a statement.

Greene earned a bachelor of science degree in materials engineering and a master's degree in industrial engineering, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He later studied at the University of Southern California and also attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Leavenworth, Kansas.

In 2010, he spoke at the opening of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center, a research facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with the mission of improving the Army's understanding of social, information and communication networks, according to the Army's account of the event.

'We're in a fight now with an enemy that's a little bit different and uses different techniques ... and networks are a key part of that,' Greene said.

He said finding patterns in the tactics of insurgents was difficult because of the way networks evolve and otherwise change. So the goal was to bring to light the patterns and determine how to anticipate and influence the actions of insurgents/

'The enemy is every bit as good as we are at using that network to our detriment so this is essential work, this is about defending our country,' Greene said. 'You must know that there is a direct application on the battlefield and we're using it today, but we don't really understand it yet so this is a critical element.'

His awards include the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Service Medal, a Meritorious Service Award and an Army Commendation Medal.



Cutting edge: Research, Development and Engineering Command Deputy Commanding General Brig. Gen. Harold J. Greene, a Rensselaer alumnus, speaks at the opening of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center May 3 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York

Decorated hero: Colonel Christopher Davis (right), accepts the charter for Project Manager Navigation Systems from then Brig. Gen. Harold Greene in 2011 Career soldier: Heidi Shyu, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology), hosted the promotion ceremony of Brig. Gen. Harold J. Greene at the Fort Myer Officers Club on August 30

'We’re all shocked and saddened. They’re just lovely people,' said neighbor, Joanne Caeamanica to The Washington Post.



'This is a very close community. We all knew he was going overseas. We were hopeful he’d be safe.'



While details remained murky about what sparked the attack, it showed the challenges still remaining in Afghanistan, a nation that's known three decades of war without end.

Five major generals were killed in Vietnam, the last Maj. Gen. John Albert Dillard whose helicopter was shot down.

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.

Press conference: Rear Admiral John Kirby told gathered reporter today at The Pentagon that he could not release the name of the two-star general who had been killed in Afghanistan, but confirmed there had been a fatality

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.

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.

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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

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.

Digger: An Afghan laborer walks past a gate of Camp Qargha as Afghanistan National Army soldiers stand guard, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014

The attack in western Herat province comes as civilian casualties from NATO attacks remain a contentious issue across the country. Almost 200 people protested against NATO in Herat on Tuesday, carrying the bodies of the dead civilians into the provincial capital and demanding an investigation.

In a statement, NATO said it was aware of the attack and was investigating, without elaborating.

Civilians increasingly find themselves under fire as the 2001 US-led war draws to a close, as Afghan forces take the lead in operations targeting the Taliban.



The civilian death toll in the war in Afghanistan rose 17 percent for the first half of this year, the United Nations reported in July. The UN said 1,564 civilians were killed from January through June, compared with 1,342 in the first six months of 2013. It blamed

Insurgents were responsible for 74 percent of the casualties, the U.N. said, while pro-government forces were responsible for 9 percent, government forces 8 percent and foreign troops just 1 percent.



The rest could not be attributed to any group.

Karzai has repeatedly clashed with NATO over civilian casualties and strongly condemned the helicopter attack Tuesday.

Afghan security forces also increasingly find themselves under attack as the planned foreign troop withdrawal draws near.



On Tuesday, a police car struck a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Nouristan, killing three officers, provincial police chief Abdul Baqi Nouristani said. Two other roadside bombs in northern Sari Pul province killed three people, including a district police chief and his driver, deputy provincial police chief Sakhi Dad Haidary said.