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Sunday 28 October 2012 - 07:11

US disrespect for Afghans triggers anti-NATO attacks : Analyst

Story Code : 207146
US disrespect for Afghans triggers anti-NATO attacks : Analyst
“These are people who may not like what they have had in terms of interactions with them but they are also upset about the broader political and sociological context of what the US troops are doing to the Afghan society... these attacks are motivated by grudges, by people who are unhappy with the people that are coming in contact with in the US and NATO military forces but also by the broader context of what they hear and see these forces are doing in Afghanistan specifically for example breaking into people’s homes and taking away the males in these homes and detaining them,” the Washington-based Investigative Journalist Gareth Porter said.

    In the latest incident of green on blue attack, on Thursday, two US soldiers were killed in the central province of Uruzgan after an individual in Afghan National Police uniform opened fire on them. Earlier in the day, an Australian soldier was also killed in another attack by the Afghan forces.


Over the past months, there has been a rise in the ‘green-on blue’ attacks in Afghanistan, in which Afghan security forces turn their weapons on US-led foreign troopers. Over 50 foreign soldiers have been killed in the attacks so far in 2012.

The US and NATO claim that the insider attacks were carried out by militants who have infiltrated the Afghan police force, but the Afghan Interior Ministry has rejected the claims.

The analyst concludes that the major problem of the US and NATO forces with regard green on blue attacks in the war-torn country would be linked to Taliban’s ability to penetrate the ranks of the Afghan police forces.

“Well, I think there is clearly a very serious problem for the US and NATO forces that the Taliban has been able to place people within the ranks of the Afghan government in all kinds of positions and in some cases not necessarily placing them in the military, police or intelligence services, but rather making contact with them once they are in those services and convincing them that they should, in fact, carry out insider attacks...So this is a much bigger problem than simply prearranged penetration of the ranks of the Afghan military and police. It is also they are influenced once they are in those ranks to carry out these attacks,” he concluded.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity remains across the country.
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