Most attacks by Afghan allies on US and NATO forces are ‘personal,’ officials said

The majority of attacks on U.S. and coalition troops by
Afghan soldiers who are supposed to be friendly are personal attacks unconnected
to insurgent groups, defense officials said Wednesday.

Four defense officials testified in a House Armed Services Committee hearing about an attack by an Afghan private security contractor on U.S. troops
in March 2011 that killed two soldiers, including a constituent of committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.).

{mosads}The defense officials said in prepared testimony that there have
been 42 “green-on-blue” attacks involving Afghan security forces and private
security contractors since May 2007, resulting in the deaths of 70 International
Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) and 110 wounded.

The issue of Afghan soldiers attacking coalition troops has
been thrust into the news recently after an attack last month that killed four
French soldiers. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a week later that France
would be withdrawing its coalition troops from Afghanistan a year early.

At the hearing, officials said most of the attacks involved members of the Afghan National Security Force, and three, including the
March 2011 attack, were by private contractors. After personal attacks,
insurgents infiltrating and impersonating Afghan security forces were the
next most common type of attack.

Another killing of a NATO soldier by Afghan soldiers
occurred Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, The Associated Press reported.

McKeon said that improvements were needed in screening
Afghans who guard coalition bases. He said that these kinds of attacks are on
the rise, as 75 percent have occurred in 2010 and 2011.

“The screening and vetting has been tragically weak in
picking up signs of threats after the Afghan joined either the Afghan National
Security Force, or a private security contractor,” McKeon said. “DOD data
indicates that at least 60 percent of all the attacks appear to be motivated by
personal matters, arising after hiring.”

David Sedney, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, said
that the personal attacks occur because of personal issues, combat stress and other
factors.

The March 2011 attack, where Army Spc. Rudy Acosta and Cpl.
Donald Mickler Jr. were killed, occurred at Front Operating Base Frontenac,
which was secured by a private security contractor.

The contractor, Tundra Security, had hired an Afghan man who
was fired the year prior from a different command post for making threats about
killing Americans, but his statements weren’t included in his record.

Acosta’s parents, constituents of McKeon’s, attended the
hearing. They did not testify, but McKeon read a statement for them, which said
that U.S. troops should be guarding their bases, not Afghans.

McKeon said the issue of contractor security has been
complicated because Afghan President Hamid Karzai has only allowed Afghan
nationals to be used as security contractors, and not U.S. citizens. He has also
called for all private security contractors to be disbanded and replaced with
an Afghan Personal Protection Force run by the Afghanistan Ministry of
Interior.

Defense officials said they have stepped up screening
procedures for contractors since the attack last year.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend, director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan
Coordination Cell, said that the United States has worked with Afghanistan officials to
create a layered screening process and improved detection of potential threats.

“Our bottom line up front is the protection of service members
deployed in harm’s way against any threat remains one of our highest priorities
for our commanders and leaders,” Townsend said. “Although there’s no such thing
as perfect protection, especially in Afghanistan, we know we must continue to
develop effective ways to combat the insider threat to our service members.”

Contractors do play an important role in Afghanistan, said Gary
Motsek, deputy assistant secretary of defense for program support, as 20,000 soldiers
would be needed to do the non-combat-related functions they provide.

“I don’t believe we can actually fully eliminate them,”
Motsek said of the attacks, “but we must do everything in our power to minimize
them.”