Sharp rise in Afghan forces attacking NATO counterparts

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. marines after sharing a meal with them before dawn Friday and then fled into the desolate darkness of southern Afghanistan. It was the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week.

Thirty-one coalition service members have died this year at the hands of Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, according to NATO.

The assaults have cast a shadow of fear and mistrust over U.S. efforts to train Afghan soldiers and police more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban's hardline Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaida's leadership. The attacks also raise further doubts about the quality of the Afghan forces taking over in many regions before most international troops leave the country in 2014.

Friday's deadly shooting took place in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand province, said U.S. military spokeswoman Maj. Lori Hodge. Sangin was a Taliban stronghold for years and has one of the highest concentrations of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in the country.

A U.S. Defence Department official confirmed the dead Americans were Marine Special Operations Forces. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the family notification process was not complete.

Sangin's district chief and the Taliban both identified the gunman as Asadullah, a member of the Afghan National Police, who was helping the marines train the local Afghan police.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by phone the attacker joined the insurgency after the shooting.

"Now, he is with us," Ahmadi said.

The district chief, Mohammad Sharif, said the shooting happened at a police checkpoint after a joint meal and a security meeting. The meal took place before dawn because of Ramadan, the month in which Muslims abstain from food during daylight hours.

Compared to the 25 attacks this year that have killed 31 foreign troops, there were 11 such attacks and 20 deaths in 2011, according to an Associated Press count. Each of the previous two years saw five such attacks.

The NATO coalition says it takes the rise in "green-on-blue" attacks seriously but insists they are not a sign of trouble for the plan to hand over security to Afghan forces.

"We are confident that those isolated incidents will have no effect on transition or on the quality of our forces," said Brig.-Gen. Gunter Katz, a spokesman for NATO troops.

On Tuesday, two gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others in Paktia province in the east. And on Thursday, two Afghan soldiers tried to gun down a group of NATO troops outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan. No international forces died, but one of the attackers was killed when NATO forces shot back.

The U.S. hopes the Afghan Local Police, a village defence force backed by the national government, will become a key force in fighting the insurgency.

Just last month, a coalition statement touted the marines' work training the Afghan Local Police in Sangin, describing a new academy in an Afghan National Police compound near a marines base.

"During the three-week course, future police train in the basics of patrolling, vehicle and personnel searches, checkpoints, escalation of force, detainee procedures, marksmanship and Afghan law," the statement said.

Meanwhile Friday, Britain said one of its soldiers died the previous day from wounds he received in a shooting while on patrol in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province. Nineteen coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan this month.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 11, 2012 A23