Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Nuclear Energy News .




THE STANS
'Green-on-blue' attacks spike in Afghanistan
by Staff Writers
Kabul (AFP) Aug 11, 2012


Seven international soldiers have been killed by their local colleagues in a bloody week of violence in Afghanistan, further eroding trust between foreign troops and the Afghans they work with.

Six died on Friday alone -- three American soldiers were shot by an Afghan policeman who invited them to a meal and three other troops were killed by an Afghan civilian employed on a NATO base, military and Afghan officials said.

NATO has about 130,000 soldiers helping the Afghan government fight an insurgency by Taliban Islamists, but they are due to pull out in 2014 and are increasingly working with Afghans they are training to take over.

So-called green-on-blue attacks, in which Afghans turn their weapons against their foreign allies, have killed a total of 34 international soldiers this year, according to a NATO count.

The seven deaths this week -- one soldier was killed on Tuesday -- make up around 40 percent of the total of some 17 foreign troops killed.

"Clearly as far as the future partnering and training and mentoring of Afghan forces by NATO and the US is concerned, it is going to have a very negative effect and the lack of trust between the two sides is going to grow," said author and analyst Ahmed Rashid.

"NATO will have to impose new security measures for its own troops when they are dealing with Afghans or training Afghans, which will put even more distance between the two sides," Rashid told AFP.

Some of the attacks are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between local and US-led allied forces.

"What we identified was that most of them were caused by personal grievances and stress situations," the chief spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, Brig-Gen Gunter Katz, told AFP.

"Those isolated incidents don't reflect the overall security situation in Afghanistan. As we speak 500,000 soldiers and policemen are working together to contribute to a more secure and stable Afghanistan," he said.

"We are confident that the morale (among international troops) is still good and those incidents will not affect our transition process."

Katz agreed, however, that there had been an increase in green-on-blue attacks this year, up from a total of 21 incidents and 35 deaths in all of 2011.

"Insurgents understand that this type of action is the most effective one, so they tend to use it as much as they can," a Western security source said.

"But apart from that, there is a general feeling of Afghans being fed up with the foreign troops, cultural issues."

On Tuesday, an American soldier died in the east when two men in Afghan army uniform opened fire, and on Thursday an Afghan soldier was killed after turning his weapon on NATO troops, also in the east.

Then on Friday an Afghan police officer opened fire on four American soldiers he had invited for a meal, killing three of them, Afghan officials said.

The Taliban claimed that attack and said the shooter had fled and joined their ranks. Katz said that the shooter had been detained, without giving further details.

Also on Friday, an Afghan civilian employed on a NATO base shot dead three international coalition soldiers, ISAF said.

"The shooter was not in uniform and our current reporting indicates he was a civilian employee authorised to be on the base, but there is no indication he was an Afghan service member," an ISAF spokesman said.

The spokesman said he had no information on how the civilian got hold of a weapon on the shared Afghan-NATO base in southern Afghanistan, and provided no further details.

President Hamid Karzai "strongly condemned the killing of six NATO soldiers in two separate incidents," attributing them to "terrorists wearing military uniforms", his office said in a statement.

There have also been instances when members of the Afghan security forces have targeted local colleagues.

On Saturday 11 Afghan policemen were killed when one of their colleagues, believed to be a Taliban infiltrator, opened fire on them, officials said.

The incident happened in Delaram district of western Nimroz province.

"Initial investigation shows the shooter was a Taliban infiltrator. He was also killed when police returned fire," Nimroz governor Abdul Karim Brahawi told AFP.

.


Related Links
News From Across The Stans






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








THE STANS
US must seal border for Waziristan push: Pakistani official
Islamabad (AFP) Aug 10, 2012
Pakistan has told Washington that US forces must seal the Afghan border in the event of any offensive against the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan, an official said Saturday. The Haqqanis, blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan and whose leaders are understood to be based in the Pakistani tribal district, is one of the thorniest issues between Islamabad an ... read more


THE STANS
Senegalese villagers vow to fight biofuels project

AREVA invests in bio-coal

German National Academy of Sciences issues a critical statement on the use of bioenergy

U.S, Australian navies focus on new fuels

THE STANS
China the next solar market for China?

SolarCraft Brings Solar to Altamont Apartments

Walmart Unveils 100th Solar Installation in California

Tecta Solar Completes Solar Photovoltaic Installation at Augustine Casino

THE STANS
Off-shore wind power project considered

Obama whips up wind power attack on Romney

Clegg: Gov't 'committed' to renewables

Mexico goes ahead with wind power project

THE STANS
Paraguay row threatens Itaipu power deal

Turkey-Turkmen seek energy cooperation

Rwanda to develop off-grid lighting

Tanzania, Malawi in energy dispute

THE STANS
Environmentalists oppose Shell drilling

Iraq oil and gas law is UN 'priority': special envoy

Oil spill detected near Exxon operations in Nigeria

Oil higher in Asian trade on hopes of stimulus

THE STANS
Five Potential Habitable Exoplanets Now

RIT Leads Development of Next-generation Infrared Detectors

UCF Discovers Exoplanet Neighbor

Can Astronomers Detect Exoplanet Oceans

THE STANS
India's nuclear submarine nears sea trials

Navantia use Paramarine Advance Marine Design Software in the development of naval ships and submarines

India's first nuclear submarine set for trials

Taiwan receives two US-built minehunters

THE STANS
Mars rover captures crash landing

Obama to NASA experts: 'Let me know if you find Martians'

Opportunity Will Resume Driving Soon

ChemCam sends digital 'thumbs up'




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement