A US advisor has been killed by a woman wearing an Afghan police uniform at the police headquarters in capital city Kabul.

General Brigadier John Madower, a spokesperson for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, told the press what happened.

"What I can confirm for you at this point in time is that today at the Kabul Police headquarters, a civilian member of ISAF, a police mentor, was shot and sadly died. The perpetrator is in custody of the Afghan authorities, she was dressed as a member of the Afghan uniform police although her affiliation with the police is not known at this point in time. There is a joint Afghan-ISAF investigation on-going, and once more details are available, we'll obviously let you know. Obviously this is a very sad occasion and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of the deceased."

Officials believe the woman, named as Nargis, has links to the Taliban. Believed to be the first woman to carry out an insider attack, the perpetrator is now in custody.

In a separate incident, at least five local policemen were killed by another officer in northern Afghanistan. The deaths continue the recent string of insider attacks in Afghanistan, where more than 50 members of the Nato-led force in the country have been killed by Afghans wearing army or police uniforms this year.

The so called green-on-blue attacks have strained relations between coalition and Afghan forces as they seek to contain the Taliban insurgency ahead of the major withdrawals of NATO combat troops by the end of 2014.

Written and presented by Alfred Joyner