Shooter in Afghanistan insider attack is an Iranian national, official says

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The female police officer who killed a U.S. contractor in Kabul on Monday is an Iranian national, an Afghan government official said Tuesday.

Sediq Seddiqi, an Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman, said the Afghan police officer is an Iranian citizen who met her Afghan husband in Iran. After they eventually went to live in Afghanistan, he managed to help her illegally obtain Afghan citizenship.

The United States has long been concerned about Iranian terror-related activity against U.S. targets. But Seddiqi said he doesn't have evidence to link the attacker to militant groups carrying out acts of terror. She was arrested and was questioned, he said.

According to the BBC the woman is "believed to have mental health problems" - don't they always? It's called Islam.

The woman, believed to have mental health problems, joined the security forces using an illegally obtained Afghan identity card. Investigators are not ruling out the possibility that she may have been in touch with "terrorist networks".

It is thought to be the first time such an insider attack was carried out by a woman. The 33-year-old assailant, identified only as Nargis, arrived at the HQ on Monday looking for the police chief, the governor of Kabul or the head of the criminal investigation department. When she was unable to locate them, she went to the canteen and fired one bullet at the Nato aide. She then shot at officers who tried to arrest her.

A spokesman for the interior ministry said an Iranian passport and Iranian national card had been recovered from the attacker's house.

"Our investigation shows that Nargis is an Iranian national. After her marriage to with an Afghan, she managed to obtain an Afghan ID illegally and joined the police," the spokesman told reporters in Kabul. The woman, whose husband worked in the criminal investigation department, graduated from the national police academy six years ago with the rank of sergeant.

The mother of three suffered "from a psychological instability", the government spokesman said.