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Subscribe to RSSFour U.S. troops fighting with the NATO-led alliance were killed in another suspected "insider" attack in southern Afghanistan. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
Updated at 12:05 p.m. ET: Four U.S. soldiers fighting with the NATO-led alliance were killed in an apparent insider shooting in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the Pentagon confirmed.
A Pentagon spokesman did not have further details, including which branch of services the Americans belonged to, Reuters reported.
The shooting took place in Zabol, a southern province where U.S. forces are based, and came a day after two British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman while returning from a patrol in southern Helmand province — a stronghold of the Taliban-led insurgency.
Local authorities also told NBC News that the four killed were Americans.
An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement described the incident as "an insider attack suspected to involve members of the Afghan police."
What's leading Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?
One attacker who was wearing an Afghan National Police uniform (ANP) was also killed in the fighting, a source told Reuters.
At least 51 foreign military personnel have been killed in "insider" attacks this year, attacks which have put a heavy strain on trust between the coalition and Afghanistan as they move towards handing security responsibility to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
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The rise in such attacks has led to the training of new recruits to the Afghan army and police being suspended.
The Taliban indicates that deadly attacks on U.S. personnel in Afghanistan were in response to an anti-Islam video. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
With foreign combat troops withdrawing from the increasingly unpopular and expensive war, the enormous cultural divide that still separates Afghans and their allies after 11 years of conflict has become more of a concern than ever.
The NATO-led coalition and its Afghan counterparts have created a special Joint Casualties Assessment Team to investigate every attack, which number at least 37 this year.
In more than half of cases, attackers are either killed or escape and the motive never emerges, making it more difficult for the coalition to stem the surge.
Adding to the toll of coalition deaths caused by insider attacks over the weekend, two were killed and nine wounded in Friday's attack on Camp Bastion, one of the worst attacks on a NATO-operated base all year.
Six Harrier jets were destroyed and two were significantly damaged in the raid on the camp airfield, carried out by 15 insurgents wearing U.S. Army uniforms and split between three teams, a NATO statement said on Sunday.
U.S. suspends training for some Afghan recruits after 'insider' attacks
Three refueling stations were destroyed and six aircraft hangars were damaged. Britain's Prince Harry was at Camp Bastion at the time of Friday's attack, but was unharmed.
US forces based at Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan take part in a memorial service marking the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
All but one of the attackers were killed, with the remaining fighter taken into custody by coalition forces.
ISAF said the attack was "well-coordinated". A statement said: "The insurgents, organized into three teams, penetrated at one point of the perimeter fence. The insurgents appeared to be well equipped, trained and rehearsed. Dressed in U.S. Army uniforms and armed with automatic rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and suicide vests, the insurgents attacked coalition fixed and rotary wing aircraft parked on the flight line, aircraft hangars and other buildings."
With foreign combat troops withdrawing from the unpopular and expensive war by the end of 2014, the enormous cultural divide that still separates Afghans and their allies after 11 years of war has become more of a concern than ever.
The NATO-led coalition and its Afghan counterparts have created a special Joint Casualties Assessment Team to investigate every attack.
In more than half of the cases, attackers are either killed or escape and the motive for the incident never emerges, making it more difficult for the coalition to stem the surge in incidents.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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We are now hearing from the top brass there might be as much as 25% Afghan police & army personel with ties to the Taliban. WOW! Does this mean once US Forces leave there will be a civil war among the Afghans against each other. Why not all is crazy as hell. How many are there that show up for duty stoned to the gills. It will all be interesting once we leave. Stop all the tax payers money going to all these arab countries that hate us. We all could have new houses. What is it upto now. 50 billion going out & dead soldiers coming back. I need to talk to some scholar who can explain what we are doing.
Simple. Get out of Afghanistan!
Let's take a page from the history book from the 80's. The U.S.S.R tried to tame afghanistan back in the 80's and it lead to the economic melt down of that country. Now history is repeating itself and it is us on the chopping block. Afghanistan must find it's own way. Radical Muslims or Extremists don't attack us because were Americans, they attack us because of the our economic policy's dictated by the wealthy elite in this country. That's why they hit the World Trade Center on 9/11 instead of a crowded sports stadium. They sent us a message! let's get out of afghanistan now.
An Afghan with a gun is a dangerous Afghan. Islam teaches these stone age mental giants that it is fine to kill an 'infidel' for almost any reason, and in some cases for NO REASON. We are not winning hearts and minds. We are training and arming a future adversary. Just get out of the Middle East altogether. Muslim on Muslim violence is much more palatable than Muslim on American or Muslim on Christian violence. If Islam is intolerant of other religions, they should be banned from ever leaving their home country. Simple enough. Just don't fly anyone into or out of the Middle East. Sure the airlines would suffer, but right now, who cares? Tell the American and European media to get out and stop publishing inflammatory pictures of Muslims burning American flags. No cameras, no protests. Let all the Muslims 'even it up' among themselves, and just deny them the opportunity to leave their part of the world. Any American who would travel to the Middle East is opening themselves up for attack, merely by their being American. Why can't the big boys in DC understand that?
What the U.S. doesn't seem to understand is that the Muslim's life view is very unlike our own. We value life; they don't. We respect the beliefs of others; they don't. We believe in the individual's right to choose his own destiny; they have no concept of this idea. They find glory in death; we believe in the sanctity of life. We can't even begin to understand or appreciate their mindset. Their goal is to destroy the "infidels". Definition of "infidel"--anyone who is not Muslim. We are wasting time, resources, and worst of all LIVES of some of our best American citizens in this war to give them what they don't really want and can't understand. I pray for us all every day. Why can't the government see what is so obvious to us laypeople? Russia, China, and Iran are awaiting, if not helping, our defeat by these insurgencies.
We cant help these people. They dont want us there.
We should take our aid and get out.
The White House press secretary said that all of the events leading to the attack were done by peace loving protesters. We should all take them for their word and sleep good tonight.
As I have said four or five hundred times - it is time to get out. Where are our gutless muslim sympathizer leaders?
...
If the president's policies were not in place, this number would have 50.
But because he is in favor of continued negotiations and education, the number is only 4 - a reduction of 92%
Obama / Biden in 2012.
by your reasoning..
if bush had been president the number would be 0 - a reduction of 400%..
if hillary had ballz..
she would be president!
Come on Mr. president! We trained all of those Muslims! Then we give them guns so that they can kill us! Come on we are smarter than that.
I have to laugh at NBC News and the wire services using phrases like "the enormous cultural divide" between Afghans and coalition troops, and their continuing insistence on describing Afghanistan as an eleven year "war."
Actually it's pretty simple. For eleven years we have not been "at war" in Afghanistan, we have been the occupier of Afghanistan. There is no "cultural divide," there is anger and hatred of the invader and occupier. People don't like to have their countries attacked, invaded and occupied by foreign troops.
Afghans didn't like it when Alexander the Great invaded in 326 B.C. on his way to India, they didn't like it when Genghis Khan and his Mongols walked in uninvited in 1218 A.D., they didn't like the Soviet invasion in 1979, and they don't like the US/NATO invasion and eleven year occupation now. Incidentally, Osama Bin Laden was a US ally and used US weapons effectively to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The word "occupation" is avoided by Big Media because the US public doesn't like the notion of being an occupying power, it is politically unpopular. Also, the public must not make associations with Israel's continuing occupation of Palestinian territory.
The invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq were masterminded by a small nest of hardline pro-Israel neoconservatives with close ties to the Cheney/Bush regime in the wake of 9/11. End the occupations and America and the world will be safer.
Love and pay off your Muslims, and they will "tolerate" you for a while! THEN they'll kill you, infidel! Although I used to support him, this Libya/Afghanistan business has proven Mr. Obama to be a wishful thinking fool! And a liar!
"Jeopardy" - a popular TV game in America. "Treachery" - the national sport of Afghanistan and a favorite activity of Muslims everywhere!
GET OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!