Afghan man serves four years out of 20 for killing two American military officers

A man convicted of killing two U.S. military officers in Afghanistan has been freed from prison after serving four years of a 20-year sentence, officials said Monday.

Quoting unnamed Afghan sources, Stars and Stripes reported Monday that Abdul Saboor was released Friday. He was convicted in the 2012 shooting deaths of Air Force Lt. Col. John Loftin and Maj. Robert Marchanti II, a soldier in the Maryland Army National Guard.

The slayings, which occurred inside a heavily fortified section of Kabul, resulted in heavy restrictions placed on how U.S. military forces worked with Afghan personnel. It also prompted the U.S. and other countries to remove their advisers who were working in Afghan government ministries, according to Stars and Stripes.

Mr. Saboor was working for the Afghan government when he suddenly turned on the two Americans and began firing. In a later interview, he said the attack was in retaliation for an incident in 2012 when about 500 Korans from a detention library were burned.

According to Stars and Stripes, he was unrepentant for his role in the killing.

He escaped after the killing and was captured in 2016 in Afghanistan’s Parwan Province.

The release was not connected to the U.S. brokered arrangement with the Taliban but an earlier agreement between Kabul and the Hezb-e-Islami terrorist group which claimed responsibility for the slayings, according to Stars and Stripes.