KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan police killed four American soldiers coming to their aid after a checkpoint attack Sunday, the third assault by government forces or insurgents disguised in military uniforms in as many days.
The escalating violence – including a NATO airstrike that killed eight Afghan women and girls gathering firewood – is straining the military partnership between Kabul and NATO as the U.S. begins to withdraw thousands of troops sent three years ago to route the Taliban from southern strongholds.
The attacks drew unusually strong criticism Sunday from the U.S. military’s top officer, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who called the problem of rogue Afghan soldiers and police turning their guns on allied troops “a very serious threat” to the war effort.
This year, 51 international service members have died at the hands of their Afghan allies or those who have infiltrated their ranks. At least 12 such attacks came in August alone, leaving 15 dead.
The surge in insider attacks is a sign of how security has deteriorated as NATO prepares its military exit from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The U.S. is days away from completing the first stage of its own drawdown, withdrawing 33,000 troops who were part of a military surge three years ago.
NATO and U.S. forces are working with the Afghan government to tighten vetting procedures and increase security between the forces, but nothing has so far been able to stem the attacks on troops, which NATO frequently asserts are standing “shoulder by shoulder.”
In unusually blunt remarks to the Pentagon’s own news service, the American Forces Press Service, Dempsey said the Afghan government needs to take the problem as seriously as do U.S. commanders and officials.
“We’re all seized with (the) problem,” said Dempsey, after discussing the issue at a meeting in Romania with NATO officials. “You can’t whitewash it. We can’t convince ourselves that we just have to work harder to get through it. Something has to change.”
“We have to get on top of this. It is a very serious threat to the campaign.”
A weekend of deadly attacks began Friday night, when 15 insurgents disguised in U.S. army uniforms killed two Marines, wounded nine other people and destroyed six Harrier fighter jets at a major U.S. base in the south, military officials said.
On Saturday, a gunman in the uniform of a government-backed militia force shot dead two British soldiers in Helmand province in the southwest.
On Sunday, an Afghan police officer turned his gun on NATO troops at a remote checkpoint in the southern province of Zabul, killing four American service members, according to Afghan and international officials.
“It was my understanding that it was a checkpoint,” said Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for international military in Afghanistan.
One police officer was killed in the clash with NATO troops, he said. Other officers at the site fled; it was unclear whether they were involved in the attack.
Two international troops were wounded and were receiving treatment, Graybeal said. He did not say how serious the injuries were.
The latest deaths make at least 247 American troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year. Nearly 2,000 American troops have been killed in the conflict since the 2001 invasion.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the police who attacked were not affiliated with the Taliban insurgency.
“But they are Afghans, and they know that Americans are our enemy,” Ahmadi told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.
The airstrike that killed the eight women and girls, meanwhile, drew an apology from the U.S.-led coalition, condemnation from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and cries of “Death to America!” from villagers who retrieved the bodies.
Afghan officials said the NATO strike occurred before dawn in remote Laghman province.
The International Security Assistance Force, as the U.S.-led coalition is known, acknowledged civilians had been killed and expressed its regret over the airstrike. It insisted known insurgents had been the target.
