NATO force orders teamwork with Afghans cut back

KABUL, Afghanistan –- In the most sweeping response yet to “insider” shootings that have killed 51 Western troops this year, the NATO force has ordered a halt to joint patrols and other field operations by Afghan and foreign troops unless specifically approved by a regional commander, military officials said Tuesday.

The move is a dramatic blow to what had been the centerpiece of the Western exit strategy, which was for foreign troops to train Afghan police and soldiers in the field, so that Afghan forces would be ready to take the lead in fighting the Taliban by 2014.

Under the new directive, Afghan and NATO troops will continue to share joint bases, but contact between them will be limited to officers at the battalion level, mainly in the form of planning sessions and meetings, military officials said.

The order was given Sunday by Lt. Gen. James Terry, who heads the Joint Command of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, on the same day that four American troops were shot and killed by Afghan police. The NATO force did not publicize the directive other than to provide copies in response to specific queries from news organizations.

Maj. Adam Wojack, an ISAF spokesman, acknowledged that the change would have a “huge” effect in the field. Until now, up to 80% of operations were “partnered” ones involving Western and Afghan troops.

He said the directive was prompted not only by insider shootings, which have accounted this year for about 15% of the NATO force’s fatalities, but also by an anti-Islam video that has triggered protests across the Muslim world, including a violent demonstration in Kabul on Monday.

“There’s a lot of tension out there,” he said, describing the directive as “a pretty major measure to mitigate risks.”

Exceptions to the directive would have to be approved by  regional commanders, most of whom are two-star generals. Previously, lieutenants were authorized to give the go-ahead for patrols and other joint operations.

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Suicide bomber kills about 12 people near Afghan airport

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A female suicide bomber struck near Kabul’s international airport early Tuesday, killing about 12 people, nine of them believed to be foreigners, Afghan police said.

The blast, on a busy stretch of road lined with wedding halls, wrecked a minivan that was carrying international and Afghan contract workers, said the police chief, Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi. In addition to those killed, eight people were injured, he said.

The insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami claimed to have carried out the attack, and said on its website that the targets were “intelligence” operatives. Most such strikes in and around Kabul are blamed on the Taliban or an offshoot, the Haqqani network.

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Riots break out in Afghanistan in protest of anti-Islam film

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Rioters infuriated by an anti-Islam video clashed with police in the Afghan capital on Monday, setting cars and tires ablaze and chanting anti-American slogans.

Police blocked off the traffic circle closest to the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions, and most Westerners working in Kabul were ordered by their organizations to try to stay out of public view.

Monday's unrest broke out when about 1,000 people gathered near an American base on the capital's eastern edge began marching toward the city. Police fired shots into the air to try to disperse the crowd, but the protesters continued to surge forward.

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Foreign installations had been braced for trouble on Friday, the main Muslim prayer day, but there were only scattered and mainly peaceful protests. President Obama telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai beforehand, urging him to do what he could to stave off violence. Karzai did not personally issue a public call for calm, but aides said he warned local officials and religious leaders against inciting riots.

Frictions have been rising between Washington and the Karzai administration in recent days. The Afghan president had a tense meeting Sunday with the U.S. special envoy to the region, Marc Grossman, and afterward issued a sharply worded statement saying that the American failure to hand over some suspected insurgents when a military prison at Bagram air base reverted to Afghan control violated a strategic pact between the two countries.

Karzai also said he was "deeply saddened" by an errant U.S. airstrike on Sunday that killed eight Afghan village women in the eastern province of Laghman. The NATO force has expressed regret and is investigating the incident.

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Photo: Afghan Police stand by burning tires during a protest in Kabul. Ahmad Jamshid / Associated Press

Afghans: Eight village women killed in NATO airstrike

KABUL, Afghanistan — Eight rural Afghan women gathering fuel for fires were killed Sunday by a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said, and mourning villagers carried the bodies to the provincial governor’s office in protest.

The Western military acknowledged that a strike aimed at a group of insurgents had apparently killed between five and eight civilians as well. An investigation was continuing, the NATO force said.

A spokesman for the NATO coalition, Air Force Capt. Dan Einert, said the bombardment followed a “significant engagement” Sunday morning in the remote Alinger district of Laghman province. He said a unit of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force positively identified a group of about 45 insurgents with hostile intent and called in the airstrike, which killed a large number of them.

“Unfortunately, we are aware of civilian casualties as a result of this strike,” he said.

Sarhadi Zowak, a Laghman provincial spokesman, said in addition to the eight women killed, seven other women were wounded.

In recent years, NATO and Afghan government forces have been responsible for a shrinking proportion of civilian deaths, with nearly all such deaths and injuries blamed on insurgents. But airstrikes remain the single largest cause of civilian casualties caused by international forces.

Overall, the United Nations reported more than 3,000 civilians killed or injured by the conflict in the first half of this year, a drop of 15% from the same period a year ago. But that trend has been reversing itself during the warm-weather months.

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Photo: An Afghan woman is treated in a hospital in the Alingar district of Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit: Khalid Khan / Associated Press.

Assailants believed to be Afghan police kill four Western troops, officials say

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Assailants believed to be members of the Afghan police killed four Western troops Sunday in southern Afghanistan, the NATO force said, less than 24 hours after two British soldiers were killed in a similar “insider” shooting.

Insider attacks, which have killed at least 51 NATO service members this year, have become a serious obstacle to Western efforts to train the Afghan police and army so they can take over the job of fighting the Taliban when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization combat mission ends in 2014.

The military statement, in keeping with usual practice, did not disclose the nationalities of the four who were killed Sunday, but most of the troops serving in the south are American or British. The NATO force said the incident was under investigation.

Often such attacks involve a lone assailant, but the military’s terse account of Sunday’s shooting indicated more than one attacker was involved. That might explain why four troops, an unusually large number, were killed in the same incident.

Both Western and Afghan officials have been making urgent efforts to stem the flood of insider attacks, including cultural training for troops on both sides, tighter vetting of Afghan recruits and the embedding of intelligence personnel in Afghan battalions to try to sniff out signs of trouble.

NATO personnel have been ordered to carry weapons with rounds in the chamber at all times, and “guardian angels” are assigned to watch over comrades at vulnerable times, such as when they are eating, sleeping, working out or bathing.

Last month, U.S. special forces suspended the training of about 1,000 recruits to a village militia known as the Afghan Local Police pending a rechecking of the entire 16,000-member force for links to the insurgency.

The American commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, has said up to one-quarter of insider attacks are linked directly or indirectly to the Taliban, sometimes by threats to the families of members of the Afghan security forces, and sometimes through suborning troops when they are on leave from the Afghan military.

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Photo: U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, attends a change of command ceremony of Italian soldiers in Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday. Credit: Jalil Rezayee / European Pressphoto Agency  

Taliban strike at NATO base in Afghanistan caused serious damage

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A Taliban strike on one of the most heavily fortified NATO bases in Afghanistan was far more serious than initially disclosed, marking the most damaging such attack of the 11-year-old conflict, military officials acknowledged Sunday.

In the attack late Friday at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, where Britain's Prince Harry is stationed as an Apache helicopter pilot, insurgents dressed in U.S. military uniforms breached the base perimeter and destroyed six Harrier jets and three refueling stations, the Western military said.

The attackers, armed with automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and suicide vests, also damaged two other jets and six aircraft hangars, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement, adding that the insurgents "appeared to be well equipped, trained and rehearsed."

Western officials also disclosed that nine coalition members -- eight troops and a civilian contractor -- were wounded, though not seriously. U.S. military officials had already reported that two Marines died in the fighting, which continued into the early hours of Saturday. Fourteen Taliban fighters were killed and one captured, they said.

The Taliban movement has said it will do everything in its power to kill or capture Prince Harry, who is third in line to the British throne. He arrived at Camp Bastion a week ago.

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Photo: Britain's Prince Harry, left, is shown the Apache flight-line by an unidentified member of his squadron at Camp Bastion this month in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Credit: John Stillwell / Pool Photo / Getty Images

 

'Insider' shooting leaves two NATO troops dead in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two more NATO service members died Saturday in an “insider” shooting at the hands of a member of a problem-plagued Afghan village militia, the Western military said.

Attacks by members of the Afghan security forces targeting NATO soldiers have emerged as a serious threat to Western aims to train Afghan police and soldiers to take over responsibility for fighting the Taliban -- an effort that has accelerated as NATO prepares to end its combat role in 2014.  At least 47 troops have been killed in such attacks this year, most of them Americans.

Both sides have made urgent attempts to counter the phenomenon, including stepped-up cultural training on both sides and the embedding of intelligence officers in Afghan police and army battalions to try to pinpoint those likely to launch such an attack.

Saturday’s shooting took place in southern Afghanistan, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. It did not identify the nationalities of the Westerners who were killed, or specify the location. The attacker died in return fire, the statement said.

The NATO force said the shooter was believed to have been a member of the Afghan Local Police, a village militia that is mentored by U.S. special-operations forces.  Western military officials said earlier this month that training of about 1,000 new recruits to the militia had been suspended while the 16,000-strong force was being re-vetted for ties to the insurgency.

The village force has also been criticized for its links to warlords, and linked to persistent abuses, including rape, abductions and extortion.

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Two Marines killed in attack on Afghan base where Prince Harry is deployed

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two U.S. Marines were killed when Taliban insurgents attacked the NATO base in southern Afghanistan where Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, is deployed, military officials said Saturday. The prince was not in any danger during the strike, they said.

A well-armed squad of attackers hit the installation's airfield with “indirect fire” and small-arms fire at about 10 p.m. Friday, damaging some aircraft and buildings, said a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. Initial reports indicated that about 16 insurgents were killed.

The Western military said in a statement that two NATO service members died, without disclosing their nationalities, but U.S. military officials identified them as U.S. Marines.

The airfield that came under fire is adjacent to the United States' Camp Leatherneck and Britain's Camp Bastion in Helmand province.

Prince Harry, known in the military as Capt. Harry Wales, arrived a week ago on a four-month deployment to pilot Apache helicopters. The Taliban movement immediately vowed to do its best to try to kill or capture him.

The British government made the somewhat controversial decision to announce Prince Harry’s arrival in Afghanistan, after a previous deployment was cut short when word of his presence was leaked by an Australian media outfit. Previously, he was serving with a ground unit in the field that was considered more vulnerable to attack; this time he is based at Bastion, a large and well-fortified installation.

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Photo: Britain's Prince Harry examines the cockpit of an Apache attack helicopter with an unidentified member of his squadron, at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, on Sept. 7, 2012. Credit: John Stillwell / Associated Press

 

Taliban vows to retaliate for anti-Islam video

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban movement on Thursday harshly denounced an amateur video mocking Islam, blaming "bestial" America for its production and urging that the Muslim world respond with "appropriate action."

Most Western installations in the Afghan capital were on high alert in advance of Friday prayers, which are the main religious event of the Muslim week and a sometime flash point for violent protests, especially if mosque preachers, or imams, take to the pulpit to condemn a perceived insult to Islam.

The crudely made video was thought to have sparked attacks Tuesday on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya, which left the U.S. envoy to Libya and three other Americans dead.

The Taliban statement said its fighters would redouble efforts to strike at U.S. bases and "invading" troops in retaliation for the video, and urged religious scholars to "fully inform the masses about ... barbaric acts of America" in their Friday sermons.

A day earlier, President Hamid Karzai issued a sharply worded statement calling the video a "desecrating act." In the past, such statements from the presidential palace have sometimes been taken by conservative religious leaders as tacit approval for whipping up angry street demonstrations.

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Afghan leader rips film tied to Libya attack, raising fears of violence

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday condemned an American-made film that mocks Islam, galvanizing fears among Westerners that the Afghan leader's denunciation could be read as a go-ahead to stage violent protests.

The presidential palace said in a statement that Karzai "strongly and resolutely denounces this desecrating act" and expressed "abhorrence in the face of such an insult."

The film, clips of which were disseminated by fringe Florida pastor Terry Jones, has already prompted deadly violence in Libya, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo also came under assault.

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Karzai's statement did not mention the attacks in Libya and Egypt.

Afghans tend to have hair-trigger sensibilities regarding any perceived insult to the Muslim faith. Earlier this year, the country was torn by lethal unrest after U.S. troops mistakenly burned copies of the Koran at Bagram air base, north of the capital. About three dozen people died, including four American troops.

A condemnation from Karzai was thought to have inflamed passions in the spring of 2010, after Jones and his followers staged a Koran-burning. Nearly two weeks elapsed without any reaction in Afghanistan, until Karzai issued a call for Jones' arrest and prosecution. The next day, April 1, a furious mob descended on the U.N. mission in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, killing seven foreign U.N. workers.

Karzai's public stance toward the NATO force and his U.S. patrons has been somewhat hostile of late. He issued a strident statement accusing the United States of disregarding Afghan sovereignty after American authorities retained some Taliban and other insurgent suspects when handing the country's main military detention facility over to Afghan control. And the Afghan leader commemorated Tuesday's anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by criticizing the West's conduct of the war in Afghanistan.

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