More than twenty five NATO soldiers have been killed in 2012 alone by their Afghan counterparts in various incidents across Afghanistan. The trend which is called 'green on blue attacks' is getting more pace as the NATO plan for complete withdrawal of its forces gets closer. At the crucial juncture where the relation of Western countries and Afghanistan stands, the repetition of such killings at short intervals is a point of great concern.

The same kind of incident happened on Sunday, July 22, at the West Zone Police Training center in Herat province. In the incident, three coalition contract employees were killed when a person wearing an Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) uniform opened fire on them, the coalition said.

That is the second attack of its kind this month. On 1st July too, a man in an Afghan police uniform shot dead three international coalition personnel in Afghanistan's troubled south.

Such incidents indicate that the trend of attacks on foreign soldiers by member of Afghan National Army and Police will continue and apparently all preventative measures taken by military officials are failing to eliminate the menace created by the presence of Taliban sympathizers among Afghan security forces.

Earlier this year, NATO assessed such incidents and came up with admission of the fact that there have been failures in security procedures meant to identify potential killers of Western troops before they join Afghanistan's army and police. Also, it is believed that the killings have had a negative moral impact on international soldiers in Afghanistan.

Already, there are serious concerns over the capability of ANSF to successfully defend Afghanistan on their own after the 2014. Continuation of green on blue attacks fuels such doubts. After the withdrawal of NATO forces, the Taliban sympathizers hidden in ANSF may turn towards killing Afghan soldiers or police and that will be catastrophic for a country such as Afghanistan.

NATO and Afghan military authorities might have taken some solid measures to introduce stricter conditions for background checks of those who are recruited in Afghan army or police but it would be difficult for them to wash the mentalities of those soldiers who think extremely religious and listen more to Taliban more than their military commanders. Such soldiers form substantial threat for ANSF's integration in post-2104 scenario.