Two International Security Assistance Force servicemembers died in southern Afghanistan on Saturday after a shooting incident with a security guard, ISAF announced in a news release.

It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities, the command said, adding that the incident is under investigation.

While rare, violence against coalition forces by security guards or Afghan forces is not unheard of. There have been at least four incidents during the past nine months:

• On Nov. 26, an Afghan border policeman in eastern Nangarhar province killed six U.S. troops before others gunned him down.

• On Nov. 5, two Marines were killed in Sangin, Helmand province by "a rogue Afghan National Army soldier," according to ISAF.

• On July 20, an Afghan army sergeant got into an argument at a shooting range in northern Afghanistan and shot dead two American civilian trainers before being killed.

• In a July 13 attack, an Afghan soldier stationed in the south killed three British troopers, including the company commander, with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the middle of the night.

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