Six die in weekend "insider" attacks in Afghanistan

[Westwood]

Six die in weekend "insider" attacks in Afghanistan

By Jessica Donati
KABUL | Sun Sep 16, 2012 12:34pm EDT

(Reuters) - Four U.S. troops fighting with the NATO-led alliance were killed in another suspected "insider" attack in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, bringing the total number of deaths this weekend caused by Afghans turning on their allies to six.

Four troops were found dead and two wounded when a response team arrived at the scene from a nearby checkpoint, a spokesman for the coalition said. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the four dead were Americans.

One of the six members of the Afghan National Police (ANP) operating the observation post with six coalition troops was also found dead, while the other five had disappeared.

"The fighting had stopped by the time the responders arrived," said Major Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition.

Sunday's shooting took place in Zabol, a province where U.S. forces are based, according to a local official.

The attack came a day after two British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman while returning from a patrol in the southerly Helmand province, one of the strongholds of the Taliban-led insurgency.

At least 51 foreign military personnel have been killed in "insider" attacks this year, deaths that have badly strained the coalition's relations with Afghan forces as it moves towards handing security responsibility to them by the end of 2014.

The rise in such attacks has led to the training of new recruits to the Afghan army and police being suspended.

With foreign combat troops withdrawing from the increasingly unpopular and expensive war, the enormous cultural divide still separating Afghans and their allies after 11 years of conflict has become more of a concern than ever.

The NATO-led coalition and its Afghan counterparts have created a special Joint Casualties Assessment Team to investigate every attack.

But in more than half of cases, attackers are either killed or escape and the precise motive never emerges, making it more difficult for the coalition to stem the surge.

On Friday, two U.S. Marines were killed and nine wounded in on attack on Camp Bastion, one of the worst attacks on a NATO-operated base all year.

Six Harrier jets were destroyed and two were significantly damaged in the raid on the camp airfield, carried out by 15 insurgents wearing U.S. Army uniforms, the NATO-led coalition said in a separate statement on Sunday.

Operating in three teams, they succeeded in breaching the perimeter of the heavily fortified base. Britain's Prince Harry was at Camp Bastion at the time of the attack, but was unharmed.

Three refueling stations were also destroyed and six aircraft hangars were damaged. All but one of the attackers were killed, with the remaining fighter taken into custody by coalition forces.

In a separate incident on Sunday, NATO-led forces arrested a Taliban fighter responsible for killing two U.S. troops when their Kiowa helicopter was downed in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said in another statement.

Relations between the NATO-led coalition and its Afghan partners have also been strained by civilian casualties.

Despite efforts to limit such deaths, over 200 civilians have been killed by foreign troops in the year so far, according to figures provided by the coalition, around half the level of last year.

NATO-led air strikes in Laghman province on Saturday night killed eight women, according to a local official. The coalition acknowledged up to eight civilians could have died as a result of the bombing, but said a "large number" of insurgents had been killed in the strike.

Villagers said the death toll was higher and expressed outrage at being unable to pick up the bodies because the area had been closed off.

(Additional reporting by Ismail Sameem in Kandahar and Rafiq Sherzad in Laghman; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

 

[Sun Wukong]

NATO halts work with Afghan allies to stem insider attacks

By Jessica Donati
KABUL | Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:37am EDT

(Reuters) - NATO ordered a cutback on Tuesday on operations alongside Afghan forces in response to a surge of "insider attacks" on foreign servicemen, a move that could complicate plans to hand security over to Afghan forces ahead of a 2014 drawdown.

The order, issued by the second most senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General James Terry, indefinitely suspends joint operations for units smaller than 800-strong battalions, where most training and mentoring takes place.

"The need for that will be evaluated on a case by case basis and approved by regional commanders," said Major Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the 100,000-strong NATO-led coalition backing the Afghan government against Taliban insurgents.

The order, Wojack said, would impact on the "vast majority" of the 350,000 Afghan National Security Force members who will now have to operate without support from coalition allies. That will deal a blow to NATO's longstanding focus on training.

At least 51 foreign troops have been killed in "insider" attacks this year, in which Afghan police officers have turned their weapons on their Western mentors. That represents a spike of more than 40 percent on similar incidents throughout 2011.

The order was issued after successive weekend attacks by Afghan police left six foreign soldiers dead in the volatile south, from where the Taliban draws most support.

Wojack said Afghan forces had already taken responsibility for security operations in many areas, including districts with a strong insurgent presence, while operations could be approved on a case-by-case basis.

"This does not mean there will be no partnering below that level," he said.

The attacks have already prompted several coalition members, including France, to speed up or review plans to withdraw troops ahead of the 2014 timetable for most combat forces, as agreed by the government's Western backers.

Afghan commanders were not told of the order until Tuesday, in a hurried meeting with NATO counterparts. That underscored a scramble among coalition countries to contain the damage caused by insider attacks both on frontline troop morale and on fading support at home for the 11-year war.

"We haven't heard officially from foreign forces about it," Afzal Aman, head of operations for the Afghan defense department, told Reuters.

REDUCED SUPPORT FOR AFGHAN MILITARY OPERATIONS

The order to curtail joint operations would hobble support from NATO for Afghan military operations at a time when the Taliban were stepping up attacks, Aman said, including a raid on a major coalition base in Helmand on Friday which destroyed more than $200 million worth of Harrier fighter jets.

"It will have a negative impact on our operations. Right now, foreign forces help us in air support, carrying our personnel, wounded and dead out of the battlefields, in logistics and training," he said.

The order still allows major joint operations above battalion size to take place, but these are less frequently conducted than smaller platoon and squad-size missions.

It could also complicate tense negotiations between Washington and Kabul on a deal to keep some special forces and trainers in the country after 2014, a sensitive topic for Afghans embittered by continued civilian deaths and more than a decade of war.

Officials from both sides had hoped to conclude a deal by early next year, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week accused Washington of breaching previous security agreements underpinning the talks.

Karzai's office also denounced a NATO weekend airstrike which killed at least eight women collecting firewood east of the capital at the weekend.

"This is not a happy day for the coalition," said an ISAF official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Rob Taylor and Ron Popeski)