Killing of 8 Afghan Guards Shows Bitter Change at Bagram

Killing of 8 Afghan Guards Shows Bitter Change at Bagram
Afghan instituted that We have made changes, not only based on force protection concerns,
but we also took the opportunity to bring the number of contractors in line with the reduction of forces.
Through a spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban officials quickly boasted
that their insurgents were the "unknown gunmen" and that they had killed not civilians but armed guards, "after serious investigations about them." The victims, Mr. Mujahid said in an emailed statement, were long-term spies for the Americans, as well as guards.
On Monday night, their shift at Bagram was scheduled to begin at 10 p.m.,
and at 9:45 they reached the village of Shahka, less than two miles from the base, where a Taliban ambush was waiting for them, the Afghan police said.
On Tuesday, Afghan police officials said that "unknown gunmen" had shot up a car crowded with
workers headed for the night shift at the base, killing eight civilians and wounding two.
Americans’ distrust of Afghan workers at Bagram runs deep, especially after a suicide bomber penetrated all three rings of security to enter the base in November, blowing himself up in a group of American soldiers
and civilian workers, at least four of whom were either killed outright or died of their wounds.
The victims worked for a private security contractor, according to Abdul Shokoor, the Bagram district governor,
and because they were Afghans, they were allowed to work only on the outermost of the three rings of security barriers around the base and could not take their weapons home.