• Panetta intervenes after 10th US service member killed in 2 weeks in Afghanistan

    By NBC News wire services

    KABUL, Afghanistan -- A man in an Afghan police uniform shot and killed a U.S. service member on Sunday, a U.S. Defense Department official said, raising the death toll to 10 in such attacks in the space of just two weeks.

    The surge in violence by Afghan allies against their international partners has raised doubts about the ability of the two forces to work together at a key transition time. Afghan forces are expected to take over security for the country by the end of 2014, when the majority of international combat forces are scheduled to leave.

    On the other side, a coalition airstrike killed dozens of Taliban militants, including one of their leaders, officials said.

    The U.S. defense official in Washington discussed the matter on condition of anyonymity because the official notification process had not been completed.

    On Saturday Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to encourage him to work with U.S. commanders to ensure more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits.

    NBC's Atia Abawai explains what's behind the worsening attacks on U.S. military personnel by Afghan security and military to NBC's Andrea Mitchell.

    Panetta also urged Karzai during the telephone call to work with NATO to boost counterintelligence efforts and speak more to village elders who have ties to the army and police, the Pentagon said in a statement.

    "They expressed shared concern over this issue and agreed that American and Afghan officials should work even more closely together to minimize the potential" for future attacks, it added. 

    Few details were immediately available about Sunday's killing of a coalition member in southern Afghanistan. NATO said only that they and Afghan authorities were investigating. Afghan officials could not be reached for comment.

    What's leading Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?

    The Taliban have been actively recruiting members of the Afghan security forces, saying in a statement last week that they considered these turncoat attacks a major part of their strategy against international forces.

    Once an anomaly, these attacks have been climbing in recent months. There have been 30 such attacks so far this year, up from 11 in 2011.

    US forces in Afghanistan ordered to keep weapons loaded at all times

    On Friday it was disclosed that U.S. troops have been ordered to carry loaded weapons at all times in Afghanistan, even when they are on their bases. The order was a precaution against such insider attacks.

    Ramadan attacks
    The monthlong Ramadan fasting period that ended Sunday has been particularly violent. The Eid al-Fitr holiday on Sunday continued the trend.


    Insurgents killed two pairs of brothers with links to the government as well as three NATO service members in three separate attacks.

    In the first attack, a bomb hidden in a cemetery in the southern province of Helmand killed a police chief and his brother who were visiting a family grave for the holiday.

    Seven of the men's family members were wounded in the early-morning blast in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, said the Helmand deputy police chief, Ghulam Rabbani.

    No one claimed responsibility, but the attack was consistent with the Taliban's strategy to target authorities and others who align themselves with the government or international forces.

    The two men were brothers of a lawmaker for Helmand province, Abdulwadood Popal, who was not at the cemetery at the time of the blast. The family was visiting the grave after attending a morning prayer service for the holiday, which ends the month-long Ramadan fasting period.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    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.

    Launch slideshow

    Later in the western Farah province, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on the car of an intelligence service official as he was driving home from a family visit, killing him and his brother, who worked for the customs service.

    Another relative was wounded, provincial deputy police chief Ghulam Ghows Malyar said.

    In central Afghanistan, three NATO service members were killed when a vehicle struck a roadside bomb, officials said. Bamiyan Gov. Habiba Sarabi said the blast went off in Kohmard district while the troops were out on patrol.

    NATO forces confirmed that three coalition service members were killed in a bombing, but did not provide their nationalities or other details.

    Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

    Including Sunday's deaths, at least 41 international troops have been killed so far this month in Afghanistan.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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