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Subscribe to RSSIn the wake of attacks on NATO soldiers, the U.S. has stopped training local Afghan police for a month. Retired Col. Jack Jacobs reports that the mission to train local police may take longer than the political will. NBC's Lester Holt has more.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- United States military officials have suspended the training of Afghan Local Police (ALP) in the wake of a deadly series of so-called ‘green on blue’ attacks by Afghan soldiers and police on their international allies.
In a statement late Saturday, Col. Thomas Collins, US Forces Afghanistan spokesperson, said the training has been put on hold in order to carry out intensified vetting procedures on new recruits, and 16,000 existing ALP recruits will be re-vetted.
The shooting deaths of two American soldiers in Kabul by an Afghan colleague are under investigation, with Afghan officials are saying it was an accident. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
“While we have full trust and confidence in our Afghan partners, we believe this is a necessary step to validate our vetting process and ensure the quality indicative of Afghan Local Police," he said in the statement.
What's leading Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?
Many of the 'insider' incidents might have been prevented if existing security measures had been applied correctly, according to the Washington Post which first reported the training suspension.
The newspaper said already-trained recruits would also be re-vetted.
"Current partnered operations have and will continue, even as we temporarily suspend training of about 1,000 new ALP recruits while re-vetting current members," said the statement. “Despite the recent rise in insider attacks, they are relatively rare."
Hoshang Hashimi / AP
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Forty-five allied troops have been killed in 34 ‘insider’ attacks this year alone. The Afghan army is implicated in 19 of those attacks, but their training will not be halted.
Last week, an Afghan soldier shot and killed two American soldiers on Monday during a dispute in Laghman province in Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Aug 19 to express concern over the issue, urging him to work with U.S. commanders to ensure more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits. Panetta’s intervention followed the 10th death of a U.S. service member at the hands of Afghan recruit in the space of just two weeks.
A U.S. military official says three American service members were killed and one was wounded after a gunman opened fire on them. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
ALP training is a U.S. mission, carried out by Special Forces. Training of uniformed police and army personnel is done under the banner of the NATO operation.
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CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN THE USA? YES IT'S TRUE!
U.S. Military Preparing for Martial Law against the American People!
Even before 9/11, the Military has been training our soldiers how to shut down cities, confiscate guns, and put Americans in camps.
You all need to worry about who is setting these up and for what reason....The next president could be who you need to worry about. @!$%# Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel. You had better be thinking of your own lives and family and where their going to be soon. These are everywhere and for a reason. Get all your heads out your ass and look around at what is going on here in the United States. Somebody has a plan for all of us.
Sorry, not buying it. And I've been in the military for 21 years.
Diane, Wow - site something with with substance, or is it the substance speaking here? Can't see it anywhere I've been, quite the opposite in fact. Cities are war zones and if "our government" was going to "lock us up" they could be practicing and gain a round of applause doing so. I fear more from the lack of control in the metro areas branching outward. Try putting down the bong and clear your head dear.
Afghanistan will not ever have a infrastructure or a Government that is voted by it's people to insure safety and control by the corrupt tribes who fight with-in themselves or a Taliban that continues to ruin Afghanistan's people of any hope of peace. I am a supporter of President Obama and I am a Military Veteran but the time to get out of this war was long ago and all that $$ we spend and most of all our young generation who are disable or killed is a shame. America needs to take our precious and and use them for the good of it's people and not for a country that has no chance of being civilized.
One of the most stupid, blindly political comments I've seen.
Long-time American tradition: Arm and train our enemies and then be caught by surprise when they use our stuff against us.
Muslims cannot be trusted,they are well known for sneaking cheapshots. We should have bombed them into oblivian and not set one soldiers foot on their sand. We need to guard our own borders from illegal entries NOW!!!!!!!!
DUH...... First we teach them how to kill , then we give them weapons and wonder why they shoot their trainers. Time to leave that @!$%# hole and leave the people to deal with the muslim radicals themselves. We cannot win or make a difference in Afghanistan and should just leave and learn from our mistakes. Make no mistake this a muslim controlled country and we will not change one thing in this country. Afgahanistan is where nations go to die.
Leave Afghanistan and if they get taken over by the Taliban and al Qaida, send in then B1 bombers and drop a several dozen cobalt-strontium bombs on Afghanistan and Pakistan and let that area be quiet for a while.
I hold Obama responsible for the deaths of almost 600 American service people that have been killed in Afghanistan since he announced the war was going to be over and on what date..... He is the MOST irresponsible President this Nation has ever seen. He should be ashamed of himself, but of course he isn't because he doesn't give a poop about American lives nor about our troops. S H A M E ON YOU Mr. Obama, and the tools at the democratic convention who have the NERVE to claim responsibility for killing Bin Laden but don't MENTION how many have been killed in Afghanistan since his little announcement about when and how we are going to end the war. NO ONE with half a brain would do something like that and expect it to turn out well militarily... He is a waste of a h,man being and I use the term loosely.
After we get our troops out of this rotten hell hole the Afghan Army will be shooting each other, but we ain't coming back. Like Obama said this is it, train them & we leave for good. There is no PLAN B once we leave it to them. Our soldiers did the best they could or anyone else. They will get the biggest homecoming God speed. I love each & everyone of them for the job they had to do in one of the harshest hell holes on earth.