Editor's Note: Alain Juppe, Frances FM said:

"It is incomprehensible and unacceptable that soldiers in the Afghan army murder French soldiers." He called the latest attack an assassination.

What is "incomprehensible" is Juppe's level of ignorance. These types of attacks and killings of the US and NATO occupying forces by Afghan soldiers have been weekly occurrences for the last few years. 15 other French soldiers were wounded in this attack, 8 of them seriously. A few weeks ago another Afghan soldier shot and killed 2 other French soldiers. A total of 82 French soldiers have been killed in Aghanistan and 6 occuyping soldiers were killed when the Afghan Resistance shot down a helicopter 2 days ago. So why should Juppe, Sarkozy or anyone else be surprised by this attack? 

- Les Blough, Editor

Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan after four French troops were killed by a rogue Afghan soldier at a base east of Kabul. The move could jeopardise Nato's planned orderly pull out from the country.

The incident, in which an Afghan man in army uniform suddenly turned and opened fire on unarmed French soldiers during a sports training exercise, is the latest of several attacks in which western soldiers have been killed by members of the Afghan security forces, undermining trust between Afghan and western troops in the run-up to the withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014.

The French president immediately suspended all military operations on the ground and sent his defence minister, Gerard Longuet, to Kabul to investigate whether conditions were safe enough for French troops to operate.

"If the security conditions are not clearly established then the question of an early return of French forces from Afghanistan will arise," Sarkozy said. "The French army is in Afghanistan at the service of the Afghans, against terrorism and against the Taliban. The French army is not in Afghanistan so that Afghan soldiers can shoot at them."

France plays a key role in training the new Afghan national security forces and a sudden withdrawal could result in a major setback for the US-led Nato coalition, particularly if other troop-contributing nations follow suit.

The French defence minister described how the attacker opened fire on unarmed French soldiers inside their base in the Tabhab valley of Kapisa province while the troops were on a difficult training exercise at high altitude.

"We don't know at the moment whether it's a Taliban member who infiltrated, or someone who decided [to attack] for reasons that we don't know," he told French TV.

Fifteen other French soldiers were wounded, including eight seriously. Only French troops and their ally Afghan army troops can access the base. The attacker was arrested and was being questioned.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, praised the Afghan attacker but did not claim he was an infiltrator or provide other details.

The attack had a major impact in France only weeks after an Afghan army soldier who was being trained by French troops shot and killed two members of the Foreign Legion. French forces fired back and killed him.

The French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, said: "It is incomprehensible and unacceptable that soldiers in the Afghan army murder French soldiers." He called the latest attack an assassination.

France has around 3,600 troops on the ground as part of the 130,000-strong Nato-led force there. The French troops mainly patrol Kapisa, an often restive province in mountains east of Kabul. Their main role is to train the local Afghan army.

Until now, they were expected to gradually withdraw according to a US-led timetable of troops pulling out by 2014.

Sarkozy, facing record unpopularity at home and a difficult battle for re-election this spring, was determined to be seen to act swiftly and strongly on the deaths. His threat to withdraw forces has pushed the issue of troops in Afghanistan to the top of the election agenda.

The French presence east of Kabul is a sensitive political issue in a nation which was opposed to the war in Iraq and is sensitive about America's role in the Afghanistan operation.

The Socialist Francois Hollande, who is topping all polls to win the presidential election this spring, said in a statement that he would aim to pull out French forces by the end of this year if he became president. Sarkozy had previously agreed to follow the US timetable of withdrawal in 2014.

Juppe reacted furiously when asked if the issue of troops in Afghanistan might be being used for electoral purposes, saying the soldiers' deaths were a tragedy.

A limited number of French troops were dispatched to Afghanistan in 2001 by the then president, Jacques Chirac. But Sarkozy was quick to help the US by offering progressively more troops in recent years, which prompted Socialists to accuse him of pandering to Washington. In 2008 when Sarkozy pointedly announced on a visit to Westiminster that he would send several hundred more troops, Socialist MPs issued a symbolic motion of no-confidence in the government, warning that Sarkozy was breaking with France's "freedom of choice in the world".

One poll in 2008 found 68% of French people disapproved of Sarkozy's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. Since then he has made it a priority to stage high-profile ceremonies for soldiers killed in Afghanistan. A total of 82 French soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001.

Separately, six foreign soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. More than 2,500 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001.

Source: The Guardian