U.S. military authorities have identified the service member killed in an apparent insider attack in southern Afghanistan as a soldier from California.
The Pentagon on July 8 identified the soldier as Corporal Joseph Maciel of the city of South Gate.
Maciel died on July 7 in the Tarin Kowt district in Uruzgan Province, the military said.
Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack while serving in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. They are reportedly in stable condition.
The Taliban said in a statement that a member of the Afghan security forces opened fire on U.S. troops in Uruzgan Province. The statement said the attacker killed four people and injured several others.
Often referred to as "green-on-blue" attacks, insider attacks in which members of the Afghan security forces -- or assailants dressed in Afghan uniforms -- fire on coalition troops have become less common in recent years, with the last reported case in August 2017.
U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for the NATO-led mission, told RFE/RL in an e-mail that the soldier killed was the third U.S. service member to have died in Afghanistan this year.
Around 14,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led mission, while also carrying out counterterrorism operations targeting Islamic State (IS) militants and Al-Qaeda.
With reporting by Carl Schreck, Reuters, AFP, dpa, and The Washington Post
