An Afghan soldier detained for killing a NATO soldier escaped from his cell and walked off a military base with the help of a guard who also absconded.

An Afghan soldier detained for killing a NATO soldier escaped from his cell and walked off a military base with the help of a guard who also absconded.

The pair even hitched a lift to the main gate of the base aboard a military truck, one local official told AFP on Monday.

The soldier was arrested last Tuesday after opening fire on foreign occupation troops. The NATO soldier, from Slovakia, died and six other soldiers were wounded during the attack at a military base in the southern province of Kandahar.

Officials said the Afghan fled his prison cell on Sunday.
"An Afghan army soldier who opened fire on Slovakian soldiers last week has run away from detention," General Abdul Hameed, the top Afghan army commander in the south, told AFP.

The general said another soldier, who had guarded his prison cell, assisted his breakout and also absconded.

The pair managed to sneak off the base by pretending that the detainee was sick and needed to be taken to a military hospital, the general told AFP.