An Afghan soldier who opened fire on Australian troops at a remote base last year has claimed he and his fellow army recruits had often discussed killing the foreigners, a report said yesterday.
In a Taliban video, Mohammed Roozi talks about how he attacked Australian and Afghan soldiers at Patrol Base Nasir in November last year, saying he turned a machine gun and rocket launcher on them before going into hiding.
Roozi, who seriously injured three Australians and two Afghan soldiers in the attack, has been the subject of a manhunt ever since.
“I had one mission on my mind — to kill foreigners and teach them a lesson. We are Muslims. We cannot accept foreigners,” the Sydney Morning Herald cited Roozi as saying in the video.
The former soldier in the Afghan National Army, members of which are being trained by Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan, said on the day of the attack he prepared the grenade launcher and his gun in front of other soldiers.
“A soldier ran to me and asked me what I was doing,” he said. “He suspected my motives. I told him that it was none of his business — I opened fire. When the bullets ran out it was time to use the rocket launcher.”
Roozi also said he was not the only Afghan soldier to harbor murderous thoughts about the Westerns they were working alongside.
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