Two Spanish officers shot dead

Jose Maria Galera Cordoba

Two Spanish Civil Guards and a translator died in Qala-e-Naw after being shot by one of their drivers as they gave a training class to Afghan police, Spain’s Interior Ministry said today.

Jose Maria Galera Cordoba, 33, a captain, from the Spanish city of Albacete, and Abraham Leoncio Bravo Picallo, 33, a second lieutenant from the Galicia region were shot at 6:20 a.m. Madrid time.

The gunman worked as a driver for the Spanish guards. Civil guards at the scene shot the gunman after the “premeditated” attack. The gunman had been initially thought to be one of the police officers being trained.

The Civil Guards were training a group of 47 Afghan policemen, as part of a unit in Afghanistan that trains local forces in a NATO mission. Both Galera and Bravo had been in Afghanistan since March and expected to return home on Sept. 22, Rubalcaba said.

We do not yet have a photo of  Lieutenant Abraham Picallo.