The increasing incidents of green-on-blue attacks are deeply alarming. Almost 10 percent of NATO deaths this year in Afghanistan has been caused by insider attacks from members of Afghan National Army of Police resulting in 39 coalition casualties which include 23 Americans. The US Chairman of Joint Chiefs Dempsey and CENTCOM Commander Gen. Mattis came to Kabul on Monday to discuss this issue of grave concern.
The American leaders are now seriously worried about the trend of such attacks, as should be their Afghan counterparts.
President Obama has expressed deep concern saying he will reach out to President Karzai on the issue. He said, “In the long term, we will see fewer U.S. casualties and coalition casualties by sticking to our transition plan and making sure that we’ve got the most effective Afghan security force possible. We are deeply concerned about this from top to bottom. And hopefully over the next several weeks we’ll start seeing better progress on this front.”
The plan of Gen. Dempsey was damaged in Bagram airbase as a result of two rockets fired from unknown direction. The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff had to leave Kabul on another aircraft.
It must be a matter of serious concern for the Karzai Administration. At this critical period of the security transition, the trend of insider attacks could cause wide distrust of coalition troops toward Afghan troops, whom they are training. It is also a threat from within. In most such cases, it has been Taliban infiltrators. However, investigations in few cases have found, that actual members of Afghan National Army or Police have turned weapons on their trainers.
The Police Chief of Spin Boldak District of Kandahar has been fired for the recent incident of green-on-blue attack after one of his men killed an American soldier at the Police Headquarters. Increased surveillance and intelligence monitoring inside our forces could be a temporary tactic, but the fault line is in the recruitment process and screening. Due to the rush of NATO withdrawal and fast-track security transition, recruitment of Afghan National Security Forces has been a matter of quantity rather than quality.
President Karzai should order establishment of a special commission to probe the trend of Taliban infiltration in ANSF, and the trend of insider attacks in which actual members of Afghan forces happen to turn their guns on their foreign mentors. It is a matter of very serious concern given the fact that hopes are tied to our security forces for the post-2014 withdrawal of ISAF troops and stability in Afghanistan. President should call a meeting of the National Security Council, and discuss the issue with its domestic pitfalls. With support of the US troops, there should be a detailed investigation about the trend of such incidents and adopt a strategy against Taliban infiltration.