The Green-on-blue attacks are becoming a regular feature in Afghanistan. The latest attack took place on Friday Aug 10 in the southern province of Helmand, and resulted in the killing of three US Marines. It takes the number of Americans killed by their Afghan colleagues to nine in just under one week. Afghan officials identified the shooter as Asadullah, the commander of a unit of the Afghan Local Police (ALP). He had reportedly invited the Marines to dinner to discuss security in the Sarwan Qala neighbourhood in Helmand’s Sangin district. Once they arrived, he—and several police recruits, according to some reports—stood up and shot them dead.
The Taliban was quick to claim credit for the Aug 10 attack. The outfit said the ALP commander who had attacked the Marines had switched over to its side. It may not be an empty boast since upto eleven percent of the Afghan forces are said to be infiltrated by the Taliban. There is also a possibility that the ALP commander was acting alone out of some local pique and the Taliban is exploiting the discontent to its advantage.
Helmand has been the focus of US operations since the “surge” of 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan ordered by President Barrack Obama in December 2009. Green-on-blue attacks are reported from the eastern Laghman province also. On Aug 7, an Afghan National Army soldier turned his gun on NATO troops, wounding several before being killed by return fire. On the same day, two Afghan soldiers opened fire and killed a US soldier and wounded four others in eastern Paktia province. So far this year, Afghanistan has seen 25 such attacks as compared to 21 attacks in all of 2011.
Pentagon holds the view that the “green on blue” attacks are “due to isolated personal grievances against coalition personnel.” After the Aug 10 attack, Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz, a spokesman for the US-led forces said the attack was “tragic, but did not reflect the security situation.” In Washington the White House spokesman Jay Carney echoed similar views, and said the “operational impact (of green on blue attacks) has been negligible.”
These comments are in sharp contrast to what Gen. John Allen, the top US commander said in March. He said the attacks had led to an “erosion of trust.” Since then more screenings have taken place. A system of guardian angels has been introduced under which one American solider in any deployment/ guard duty along with the Afghan soldiers will have the added responsibility of protecting the American/NATO colleagues in the joint team. As some critics say the guardian angel’s duty is protecting the angels from their pupils. With ‘students’ out numbering the ‘angels’, the angel concept doesn’t appear to have made an impact yet.
Needless to say, the US and the NATO allies have a tough task on hand even as they are eager to affect the transition. Only seven percent of the Afghan National Army units and nine percent of Afghan police are said to be at the highest level of effectiveness. The number of Afghan personnel to be trained is still quite huge. Pushtuns who constitute 40 per cent of the Afghanistan population have a poor representation at six percent in the forces. The perception that they are main support base for the Taliban persists and no significant effort has been made to change the situation. Complicating matters further is rampant corruption in the Afghan forces. .
There are no easy solutions in sight. Yes, much would depend on how the Qatar talks fare and how the Haqqani network and its handlers behave in the days ahead.
