Article updated: 12/4/2012 10:12 AM

AP: Report details deadly insider attack by Afghan allies

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The transfer cases containing the remains of Army Capt. Drew E. Russell, right, and Army Spc. Ricardo Cerros Jr., arrive at Dover Air Force Base in 2011.

Associated Press file photo

U.S. Army Capt. Joshua Lawrence was killed in October 2011 in Afghanistan.

Associated Press

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This family photo provided via The Kalamazoo Gazette shows Army Capt. Drew E. Russell, left, with his brother James, in Colorado, just before being deployed to Afghanistan in the summer of 2011. For Russell's family, the anguish of his death is still fresh. His father, Jim, said the loss was even harder to accept after learning from the Army's investigation report early this year that it was a supposed ally, not the Taliban, who killed his son.

Associated Press

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It was a sneak attack, but not by the enemy they feared. U.S. Army Capts. Joshua Lawrence and Drew Russell were inside a small command post on an Afghan army base. An exploding grenade shattered the stillness. Before any of the Americans could defend themselves, Lawrence was dead from a bullet to the head, and Russell was dying, shot three times in the back. They were not killed by the Taliban, as the U.S.-led military coalition indicated the day after the Oct. 8, 2011, assault. They were killed in what U.S. investigators later called a "calculated and coordinated" attack by Afghan soldiers entrusted to work alongside their U.S. partners.