Afghan police shoot Nato soldiers

Two Nato soldiers have been shot dead by a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform in Afghanistan's Faryab province, officials say.

Nato is investigating the incident but said the gunman had fled the checkpoint where the shooting happened.

But another account says that the shots were fired from a nearby house and a police officer ran away at that point.

Nato is due begin transferring power to local Afghan forces in July.

If the attacker in this incident is proven to be a member of the security forces, this would be just the latest in a string of attacks by Afghan security personnel on foreign forces.

The deadliest recent attack was last November when an Afghan policeman killed six US soldiers.

There are differing accounts about what exactly happened on Monday. It is unclear if the gunman was a policeman or an insurgent dressed in police uniform.

It is thought to have happened in the provincial capital, Maymana.

The soldiers had gone to a meeting at the border police post. A man in a watch tower overlooking the entrance to the base is reported to have opened fire on them and subsequently fled.

Another account from a local Afghan official says that shots were fired from a nearby house and the officer at the checkpoint ran away at that point, the BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul reports.

Nato's exit strategy for Afghanistan involves progressively handing over to the local security forces.

Seven provinces and cities were named in the first tranche of areas to be transferred to local control in July.

There are now more than 260,000 Afghan security personnel, of whom more than 160,000 were trained over the past year.

The US is investing $11bn (£6.82bn) a year in the training mission.

But with so many new recruits being taken on, there are questions over the vetting process, the extent to which the Taliban may have infiltrated those forces, and their loyalty and reliability, our correspondent says.

The attack comes at a time of heightened tension in Afghanistan. There have been days of violent protests across the country over the burning of a Koran in the US last month.

On Friday, 14 people, including seven UN staff, were killed in Mazar-e Sharif, one of the areas to be handed over to Afghan control as US-led forces begin to withdraw in July.