The NATO force says there have been 26 such attacks on foreign troops since January in which 34 people have been killed. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed. Green on blue incidents has seriously worn out trust between Afghan security forces and US led alliance. Last month, an Afghan policeman opened fire on British soldiers in Helmand province, killing three in an attack claimed by the Taliban, and a gunman in uniform killed foreign trainers working for NATO in western Herat province, killing three. A Taliban statement posted on Twitter said the attacks were clearly summing up mood of Afghan nation towards foreign occupation. In another such incident 11 Afghan security personnel were killed by their colleagues, allegedly a Taliban infiltrator.

According to NATO’s investigation most of the these incidents were due to personal disagreements, cultural gap, between Afghan forces and their Western mentors, or were due to combat stress, rather than successful infiltration of the security forces by insurgents. But it would be unwise to ignore Taliban’s infiltration. So far things are not going in right direction for American led alliance in Afghanistan. So far more than 3,136 coalition soldiers have been killed in the war against terror since 2001. With such green on blue incidents casualty rate of foreign troops may surge in next few months. The US led alliance has to take precautionary measures to avoid such attacks. There is need to build trust between Afghan and NATO security forces. The Afghan security forces and their NATO allies must work together and coordinate their efforts to avoid such unfortunate incidents in future.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent any organization.

Author can be reached at masood.khatak@gmail.com