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American killed by Afghan in security uniform

KABUL, Afghanistan — A man wearing an Afghan uniform shot and killed one American serviceman in the East of the country Sunday, according to an Afghan security official.

Initial reports said the attacker was in an Afghan Army uniform, but the official who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity said was wearing the uniform of a related security agency. He did not specify which agency, however.

"A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at Americans in Sharana city (the provincial capital) near the governor's office," Reuters earlier quoted an Afghan official as saying, adding that two soldiers had been hit by the gunfire.

ISAF, the NATO-led coalition force in Afghanistan, did not comment on the victim’s nationality. 

According to Reuters, the "insider attack" in the province of Paktika is the fourth in less than a month, and would likely strain already tense ties between coalition troops and their allies. Most foreign troops are scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2014.

A spate of such so-called “green-on-blue” attacks in 2012 prompted ISAF to temporarily suspend joint activities and limit interaction between foreign and Afghan troops.

The move reduced the number of such incidents, but some in the armed forces say that they have also eroded the hard-won trust nurtured between the allies over more than 12 years of war.

In the country on Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the major issues related to a security agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai had been resolved as he wrapped up an unannounced trip to Afghanistan — but that the issue of immunity for American troops is still to be decided by a council of elders and leaders.

“We have resolved in these last 24 hours the major issues that [Karzai] went through. We have resolved those issues,” Kerry said. “And we have put ourselves in a position for an enduring partnership going forward in the years ahead, providing that the political process of Afghanistan accepts that.”

NBC News' F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this story