KABUL -- A police intelligence officer was the "main suspect" in the alarmingly brazen killing of two senior U.S. Army officers at Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, sources told BBC News on Sunday.
Abdul Saboor, 25, fled the ministry after the slayings on Saturday, counter-terrorism officials told the BBC. His family home in Parwan province in the northeast of the country had been raided and his family in Kabul detained, the BBC reported.
A gunman shot dead two American military officials — a lieutenant colonel and a major — inside the heavily guarded ministry in the center of the capital as protests raged across the country for a fifth day over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base.
A senior Afghan general told the BBC: ''The virus of infiltration has spread like a cancer and it needs an operation. Curing it has not helped."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Interior Ministry attack, saying it was retaliation for the Quran burnings, after the U.S. servicemen were found dead on the floor of an office that only people who know a numerical combination can get into, Afghan and Western officials said.
The Americans , who were serving as advisers to the Afghan security forces, were sitting at their desks inside the government ministry building when they were killed, NBC News reported. They were shot in the back of the head, Western officials speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press.
Underscoring the gravity of the attack and apparent security breach, Gen. John Allen, the commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ordered all NATO personnel recalled from Afghan ministries "for obvious force protection reasons." Allen's unprecedented action in the decade-long war highlighted the growing friction between Afghans and their foreign partners at a critical juncture in the war.
NATO recalls all staff from Afghan ministries
According to the BBC, Saboor had served in several Afghan ministries before joining the Interior Ministry.
"The fact that he is missing and we assume he fled, makes Abdul Saboor the main suspect for us in this case," a senior interior ministry official told the BBC.
The U.S.-led coalition is trying to mentor and strengthen Afghan security forces so they can lead the fight against the Taliban and foreign troops can go home. That mission, however, requires a measure of trust at a time when anti-Western sentiment is at an all-time high.
NBC News, msnbc.com and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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