Court Convicts Afghan Soldier in Attack on Allies KABUL, Afghanistan - For the first time, an Afghan military court convicted an Afghan soldier this week of killing troops from the American-led coalition in what is known as a green-on-blue attack. Afghan officials said on Tuesday that the court had convicted and sentenced to death a man who gunned down four French soldiers in January in Kapisa Province, east of Kabul, on a base shared by French and Afghan forces. The attack prompted France to speed up the withdrawal of its combat forces from Afghanistan, which is now scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. Word of the conviction in the case was unlikely to prompt France to reverse that decision, but it did open a rare window on what happens after Afghan soldiers and police officers attack coalition partners. Such attacks were once uncommon, but they have multiplied over the past three years and now pose a significant challenge for the allied forces fighting in Afghanistan and trying to train the country's nascent army and police. Since the start of 2010, there have been 52 green-on-blue attacks resulting in 82 deaths. Coalition officials have said they believe most of the attackers are motived by personal animus and are not Taliban infiltrators. Yet amid the increasing violence, coalition and Afghan officials have remained circumspect about the attacks, often releasing only the barest of details after each episode. The statement disclosing the Jan. 20 attack on the French troops, for instance, was only 43 words. In most cases, according to coalition statements, the attackers are killed in the firefights that ensue after they start shooting at coalition forces. What becomes of the attackers who are not killed - or do not manage to flee, as has happened in a number of instances - is rarely disclosed. Gen. Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said on Tuesday that the conviction in the January shooting was handed down on Monday and was the first for a green-on-blue attack. He identified the convicted soldier as Abdul Basir. General Azimi said that a number of other Afghan soldiers implicated in such attacks were also being held, but he declined to give an exact number or say whether any other trials were in progress. The American-led coalition said in a statement that it was aware of the court-martial and that it supported the Afghan government's "continuing efforts to bring criminals to justice in accordance with the principles of Afghan law and due process." A Western official echoed that sentiment, saying the trial should increase confidence in the ability of Afghan authorities to tackle the green-on-blue problem. The case also showed that the rule of law was taking hold in Afghanistan, albeit imperfectly, the official said. "I think the impression for us has really been that these guys disappear into the Afghan prisons - we all figured they got beat up - tortured, really," said the official, who did not want to be quoted by name suggesting that torture was a problem in Afghan prisons. The trial was closed to the public, and Afghan military officials offered conflicting accounts of where it took place. General Azimi said it was held at a military court here in Kabul, but another senior Army officer said the trial was conducted by the Afghan Army's 201 Corps, to which the soldier belonged, at a base east of Kabul. The officer asked not to be named for fear of angering his superiors by discussing a sensitive matter. Neither officer would provide any other details about the trial, like how long it lasted or what kind of evidence was introduced. But General Azimi said the conviction was "preliminary" and that the soldier would have the chance to appeal. It has become standard practice for the Afghans and the coalition to say little or nothing publicly about suspects detained after green-on-blue attacks. For instance, what has become of an Afghan soldier detained after a 52-minute firefight on a joint Afghan-American base in March remains a mystery. At the time of that episode, the coalition and the Afghan government said only that two Afghan attackers were killed during the gun battle; neither side made any mention of a third attacker who was taken alive and detained. His existence was disclosed only later, and when questioned about his fate, Afghan and American officials would each say only that the other side was holding him. An Afghan employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kabul.