US general shot dead in Afghan military academy

Major General Harold Greene has been identified as the army official killed in an attack this morning at a military academy in Afghanistan.

Greene was a two star major general and the highest ranking official to have been killed in the Afghanistan war. He was deployed to Afghanistan in January, according to the Pentagon's website.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on Americans and others Afghans at Camp Qargha, a military academy 11 miles west of Kabul. The camp trains hundreds of Afghan forces a month.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the shooting was a "cowardly attack".

Officials said the Afghan soldier who opened fire in the insider attack had been shot dead.