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BY JIM FLINK
BY CANDICE AVILES
Two more U.S. soldiers are gunned down at the hands of an Afghan soldier.
It is a disturbing trend in a year-long assault involving so-called blue-on-green attacks.
CNN has more on the number of Afghan soldiers killing American counterparts.
“It was the third time this week that Afghan troops have attacked their American partners.”
“Of all the NATO troops killed this year, one out of three has been killed by someone
in an Afghan uniform.”
And this latest attack comes at the end of Ramadan, at the behest of Taliban leader Mullah
Omar. Voice of America has more on his statement
issued right before this latest attack.
“He urges Afghans to join the Taliban and tells his fighter to ‘be careful about civilian
losses.’ Omar also boasts that his fighters have successfully infiltrated Afghan security
forces to mount rogue shootings of foreign troops.”
Fox News reports, the impact of these attacks is starting to take its toll.
Not just within the military ranks, but also in the public, which is growing distrustful
of its own police force.
“It undermines the trust the sort of trust that the Afghans have in the Afghan security
forces. It also undermines the trust between the United States and their coalition security
partners.”
That level of mistrust between the two sides seems to be building.
The Telegraph notes, internal Afghan military investigations have been launched, and other
precautions are being taken.
“Up to 300 extra specialist counter intelligence personnel have been drafted into the Afghan
army to spot potential assassins. The head of the Afghan army has ordered that 150,000
soldiers, – three quarters of the force — to be reinvestigated for security vetting
and to be enrolled on a biometrics database.”
An analyst tells MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the number of these cases demands a change in
strategy, and it demands it now.
“What we could do in Afghanistan is very similar to what we are doing in other places.
We could use drones, we could use special forces training, but we do not need to have
tens of thousands of Americans on the ground.”
International forces are expected to complete a withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014.