In brief: Likely insider attack kills troop

WASHINGTON – In the latest likely case of an insider attack, an American service member was killed and several others injured Monday when individuals dressed in Afghan police uniforms turned their guns on them in southern Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.

Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, confirmed the death and said that the three Afghan shooters fled and are being sought. Although they were wearing police uniforms, it was not yet certain if they were actually Afghan police or were just wearing the clothing.

Other U.S. officials said that nine U.S. troops were injured in the shooting, mostly with fairly minor wounds.

Neither Graybeal nor other officials would say which branch of the service the U.S. troops were from or provide details on the location of the shooting.

Suicide bomber kills commander

SANAA, Yemen – A suicide bomber assassinated Yemen’s army commander leading the fight against al-Qaida in the country’s south, the Defense Ministry said, just days after the military made major gains in its campaign to expel militants from their southern strongholds.

Maj. Gen. Salem Ali al-Quton was traveling in a three-car convoy in the southern city of Aden when the bomber threw himself on the general’s pickup truck and detonated his explosives. The commander was killed along with his driver and one of his bodyguards. Five passers-by, including two women, were seriously wounded, the ministry said.

Chinese spacecraft makes history

BEIJING – A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with an orbiting module Monday, another first for the country as it strives to match American and Russian exploits in space.

The Shenzhou 9 capsule completed the maneuver with the Tiangong 1 module shortly after 2 p.m., 213 miles above Earth. The docking was shown live on national television.

Astronauts will live and work in the module for several days as part of preparations for manning a permanent space station. The crew includes 33-year-old Liu Yang, an air force pilot and China’s first female space traveler.