An Afghan teenager killed an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan by stabbing him in the neck while he played with a group of local children, officials said Monday.
The soldier, Sgt. Michael Cable, 26, was guarding Afghan and American officials meeting in a province near the border with Pakistan when the stabbing occurred last Wednesday, two senior American officials said.
One of the officials said the attacker was about 16 years old, but his age could not be verified. He was not believed to have been a member of the Afghan security forces or in uniform, the official said. The soldier was playing with a group of children outside when the attacker stabbed him in the neck with a knife, said Zalmai Khan, a senior district official, adding that the young man had escaped to nearby Pakistan. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the young man was acting independently when he killed the soldier but had since joined the Taliban movement.
