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AFGHAN POLICEMEN KILLED 6 FOREIGN TROOPS
 A rogue Afghan police commander and several of his men killed three US soldiers in the southern province of Helmand, turning guns on them after inviting them to a dinner to discuss security, Afghan officials said on Friday 08/10/2012..The men were all American Marine Special Forces members and were killed on Thursday night while attending a meeting in the Sarwan Qala area, in what appeared to be a planned attack by rogue Afghan forces days after several other policemen in the region defected to the Taliban (see - Helmand 08.06.12).“During dinner, the police commander and his colleagues shot them and then fled. The commander was a member of Afghan National Police, in charge of local police in Sangin district,” a senior Afghan official told Reuters on condition of anonymity (see also - Sangin 11.06.10). “It looks like he had drawn up a plan to kill them previously,” the official said.A spokeswoman for the NATO-ISAF, Maj. Hodge, confirmed the incident but said it was too early to say whether it was a rogue shooting or due to insurgent infiltration.
Few hours later, in another incident, an Afghan civilian employee shot dead three soldiers, whose nationalities were not given, also at a base in Helmand province. The Afghan civilian employee was detained and is currently in the custody of NATO-ISAF, Maj. Hodge said. However, an Afghan official said in Kabul that the gunman was a rogue Afghan policeman who had opened fire on Friday evening during a row with foreign soldiers over access to a gym at the base.
So-called green on blue shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their western colleagues (see - Afghan-Trend), have seriously eroded trust between the allies as NATO combat soldiers prepare to hand over to Afghan forces by 2014, after which most foreign forces will leave the country (see - Petraeus W Plan).According to NATO, there have been 24 such attacks on foreign troops since January in which 28 people have been killed, not including Thursday’s attack. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.The latest deaths come two days after a report by the United Nations said 1,145 civilians had been killed and 1,954 wounded in the war in the first six months of this year. The UN blamed 80 percent of the deaths on insurgents, saying more than half were caused by roadside bombs.In another incident, a British soldier was killed while on patrol in southern Afghanistan, the British Ministry of Defence said on Friday.The soldier’s death brought the number of British troops killed to 423 since operations Absolute Justice in Afghanistan began in 10/2001. Of these, at least 383 died as a result of hostile action.Britain has around 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making it the second-largest contributor to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force after the USA.
Furthermore, on Saturday 08/11/2012, An Afghan police officer, believed to be a Taliban infiltrator ,has killed 11 of his colleagues after opening fire on them, in Nimroz, South West Afghanistan (see also - Nimroz execution).
No doubt that the Afghan police in the periphery and remote areas can not be referred as a trusted branch of the Afghan central administration to restore law and order but as a local force under the domination of local leaders, drug dealers and pro-Taliban warlords.
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11/08/2012 08:47:11
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