A US major-general has been killed in an attack by a man in Afghan military uniform at a British-run military academy near Kabul, US officials say.

Two British soldiers were among the wounded, along with several Americans, a German general and an Afghan general.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence said the Afghan soldier who opened fire was shot dead.

The US major-general is the most senior international soldier killed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The BBC understands the shooting at Camp Qargha happened after a dispute broke out.

The attacker was a soldier who was recruited three years ago, Afghan defence ministry sources told the BBC.The incident is said to have occurred late morning or lunchtime after an argument between Afghans and an armed Afghan soldierThe Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard post at a large group of senior Afghan and international troops.

By the time he had emptied the magazine of his US-issue M16 rifle, more than a dozen people had been shot, our correspondent says.

The Afghan commander of the British-led officers' academy, General Gulam Sakhi, was among those wounded.

The training academy is modelled on UK military academy Sandhurst and will be the only British military presence in Afghanistan when operations end this year.It first took cadets last October. A UK MoD spokesman said the incident was under investigation "and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time".

But the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement: "We can confirm that an incident occurred involving local Afghan and Isaf troops at Camp Qargha.

"The camp, also known as the Kabul ANA Officer Academy, is an Afghan National Security Forces facility.

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