An American hero ignored by the American media's anti military bias.

Apple employee took assassin's bullets for British colonel

US casualty report reveals how US Army reservist, whose day job is with the technology company Apple, was shot protecting a British Army colonel during a bloody attack in Afghanistan

A British Army colonel's life was saved by a US soldier who jumped in front of an assassin's hail of bullets, it has been reported.

The US Army reservist, who normally works for Apple, the Silicon Valley-based electronics company, was shot six times as an Afghan assailant opened fire on a group of high-ranking officers at a military training academy earlier this month, The Sunday Times said.

The reservist, who has not been named, used his body as a shield to literally "take a bullet" for the senior British officer, and was hit twice in the leg and once in the shoulder, with a further three rounds stopped by his bulletproof vest.

Details of the act of heroism were revealed in an American casualty report, the newspaper said.

It describes how the reservist returned fire with both his rifle and sidearm.

The attack by Mohammad Rafiqullah killed Major General Harold Greene, the deputy commanding general, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.

Maj Gen Greene was the highest ranking US officer to be killed in hostilities since Lt Gen Timothy Joseph Maude was killed by a hijacked airliner that crashed into the Pentagon, on September 11, 2001. A similar ranking officer has not been killed overseas since the Vietnam War.

The attack took place during an outdoor briefing at the Marshal Fahim National Defence University, in Kabul, which also houses the British-run officer training academy known as "Sandhurst in the Sand".

The Afghan ministry of defence described the attacker as “a terrorist wearing Afghan National Army uniform”.

Several other senior officers, including a German brigadier general and the Afghan commander of the training base, were among the 14 injured, which also included two Britons. Their injuries were said to be not life threatening.

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment.