U.S. pressuring Afghanistan to stop attacks of NATO troops
By VICTORIA JONES
Talk Radio News Service
WASHINGTON – Army Gen Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has flown to Afghanistan and is meeting with Gen John Allen, the commander of NATO and U.S. forces in the country and senior Afghan officials today. It’s an attempt to stop the recent wave of attacks by Afghan soldiers and police against international forces in the country
Sunday, two Afghan policemen turned their weapons on U.S. troops in Kandahar province, killing an American service member. That raised the death toll to 10 U.S troops killed in such attacks in just two weeks.
These attacks have been climbing in recent months.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called President Karzai over the weekend to encourage him to work with U.S. commanders to ensure more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits. U.S. troops have been ordered to carry loaded weapons at all times in Afghanistan, even when they are on their bases – a precaution against insider attacks, and to accompany each other.
A confidential NATO report that came out several months ago makes clear that the vast majority of attacks are deeply personal in nature and not Taliban inspired. * Meanwhile, seizures of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the main explosive used in Taliban bombs, more than doubled in the first seven months of 2012 compared with the same period of last year. A senior U.S. official said IEDs are going up at historical rates too. They are most often planted along roads and footpaths, and are a leading killer of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
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Posted by Gary
on Aug 20 2012. Filed under Breaking News, Military, Top stories, World.
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