A veteran Afghan military pilot said to be distressed over his personal finances opened fire at Kabul airport after an argument Wednesday, killing eight U.S. troops and an American civilian contractor. This is the seventh time this year that coalition soldiers or Afghan security forces have been killed by either members of the Afghan security force or insurgents impersonating them. Although the individual circumstances may differ, the incidents of Afghans turning against their coalition partners seem to reflect growing anti-foreigner sentiment independent of the Taliban. The Taliban have been known to take credit for attacks they are not connected to, and Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the gunman worked "for 20 years flying for the Afghan Air Force" and was not an insurgent. The gunman _ identified as Ahmad Gul, 48, of Tarakhail district in Kabul province _ died in an exchange of fire that followed his attack. The Afghan military said the gunman was a 20 year veteran of the Afghan Air Corps who had gotten in an argument with the American trainers during a meeting in a conference room at the Afghan Air Force headquarters. "After the shooting started, we saw a number of Afghan army officers and soldiers running out of the building. Some were even throwing themselves out of the windows to get away," said Afghan Air Corps spokesman Col. Bahader. Five Afghan soldiers were also injured in the shooting, said Bahader. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the violence and ordered his defense and security officials to investigate the cause of the recent incidents. On April 4 in Faryab province of northwest Afghanistan, a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform shot and killed two American military personnel. In February, an Afghan soldier who felt he had been personally offended by his German partners shot and killed three German soldiers and wounded six others in the northern province of Baghlan. January - One Italian soldier is killed and another is wounded after an Afghan soldier opens fire on them. Investigators currently are trying to understand why an Afghan soldier walked into a meeting of NATO trainers and Afghan troops at a base in eastern Laghman province on April 16 and detonated a vest of explosives. ___ 
 
 Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
– The grim details are taking shape in the wake of today's shooting at Kabul's airport. All nine victims were Americans—eight US troops and one contractor—who were training members of Afghanistan's fledgling air force. The shooter, an Afghan pilot, got into an argument with the trainers, left the room, then re-entered and forced the Americans to remove their weapons, reports ABC News. When they were disarmed, he shot them with a US-provided semi-automatic. He then apparently fatally shot himself. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility and said it was yet another infiltrator attack. But that looks unlikely, notes AP, which talked to the pilot's brother. "He was under economic pressures and recently he sold his house. He was not in a normal frame of mind because of these pressures," said the brother. "He loved his people and his country. He had no link with Taliban or al-Qaeda."