Afghan soldier attacks US troops near Mazar-i-Sharif

At least seven US troops were injured when an Afghan soldier opened fire at a military base in northern Afghanistan. The incident comes as the US is expected to deploy an additional 4,000 troops to the war-torn country.

US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan confirmed Saturday that American soldiers had been wounded in "an incident" at Camp Shaheen close to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in the Balkh province.

"At this time we can confirm there are no US or NATO Resolute Support fatalities," a coalition spokesman said in a brief statement. "US soldiers have been wounded. One Afghan soldier was killed and one was wounded in the incident."

Afghan officials also confirmed the attack and that the attacker had been shot dead.

The German military heads the multinational advising mission based in Mazar-i-Sharif. A German spokeswoman at the joint mission command in Potsdam said "according to what we know right now, no Germans were affected."

In a statement, the Taliban praised the "patriotic Afghan soldier" for the assault, but the group did not claim responsibility for the attack.

Additional US troops to Afghanistan

The so-called "green-on-blue" attacks, in which Afghan soldiers have turned their weapons on international forces training them, have been a major problem for NATO in Afghanistan.

The incident comes as the Pentagon is getting ready to send some 4,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan.

The latest wave of US troops will mainly be deployed to train and advise Afghan forces, following warnings by top US commanders in the region that the local military was facing a resurgent Taliban and a rising threat posed by the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) jihadi group.