Monday marked the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan this year after seven soldiers perished in two separate incidents. Five U.S. servicemembers were killed in a helicopter crash outside Kandahar city. Hours earlier, two U.S. soldiers were shot dead in a so-called insider attack at a special operations site in Wardak province when a person in an Afghan military uniform turned his gun on U.S. and Afghan forces. Three Afghan police officers and two army officers were also killed in the attack, according to a senior police official. Brigadier General Günter Katz of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, described the attack.

Günter Katz: “What I can confirm is that today in Wardak an Afghan wearing the uniform of the Afghan National Security Forces shot ISAF and ANSF soldiers. Two of our ISAF soldiers were killed, a couple others were wounded, and there were other causalities amongst the members of Afghan forces, as well.”

Monday’s attack occurred in Wardak as a deadline expired for U.S. special forces to leave the province. President Hamid Karzai had set the deadline over allegations concerning the disappearances of nine villagers.