Regardless, such incidents suggest that the coalition’s biggest problem might not be the Taliban, but rather a growing sense of distrust between coalition and Afghan forces.
BY NANCY A. YOUSSEF AND ALI SAFI | MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
KABUL, Afghanistan — The killings of four French troops Friday by an Afghan soldier they were training has renewed concerns — a decade into the training mission — that Afghans are growing increasingly disdainful of the U.S.-led coalition forces ostensibly there to help them and are striking back.
The American military has conceded that troop deaths at the hands of Afghans have climbed in the last six months but has refused to release statistics. The Pentagon hasn’t suggested any renewed security measures for American troops training their Afghan counterparts, a cornerstone of the U.S. strategy to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by 2014.
“We believe that they do appear to be increasing in frequency in recent months. What we can’t discern is a cause for that,” Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday.
“We’re certainly concerned about these incidents, and officials are taking a look at it,” he said. “But we also don’t believe that this is an endemic or systemic problem. The great majority of partnered operations, and frankly most of our operations are partnered, are done successfully, smoothly, efficiently.”
Coalition partners appear more concerned. The French suspended their mission in Afghanistan on Friday after the deaths of their soldiers and President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull his nation’s 4,000 troops out of the country altogether, saying he couldn’t allow allies to kill them.
“I cannot accept that Afghan soldiers fire on French soldiers,” Sarkozy said.
France’s contingent is the fourth largest in the coalition, after the United States, Great Britain and Germany.
“We are committed to continuing to work with the government of Afghanistan to resolve this very serious issue of individuals targeting our forces,” said Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the coalition’s commander. “We will pursue a full and complete investigation and will work closely with France on the outcome.”
According to Gen. Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, a man in an Afghan army uniform killed the four French soldiers and wounded 17 Friday afternoon in the middle of a joint fighting mission in eastern Afghanistan’s Kapisa province. The attacker was killed, Azimi said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, as it often does in such instances, though it isn’t always clear that the Islamist insurgent group has indeed infiltrated the Afghan security forces.
Regardless, such incidents suggest that the coalition’s biggest problem might not be the Taliban, but rather a growing sense of distrust between coalition and Afghan forces.