3 Australian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday by a gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform, the NATO-led coalition told, the latest in an alerting series of “rascal” shots that have besmirched confidence between Kabul and its friends.
The Australian Defence Force on Thursday affirmed the nationality of the soldiers who were serving in southern Uruzgan province, where around 1,500 Australian troops are placed. It told families in Australia were being informed of the deaths.
The deaths bring to fifteen the number of foreign soldiers killed this month in insider attacks. NATO-led forces have increased protection to attempt to prevent them, including requiring soldiers to carry loaded artilleries at all times on bases.
United States Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey traveled to Kabul last week to talk over the worrying increase in rascal shootings. United States President Barack Obama also showed his “deep concern” over the insider attacks.
Dempsey urged Afghan officials to take harder preventative action, though Western commanders have ruled out bringing down training and support between NATO-led troops and their Afghan friends.
The killings, many of which have been arrogated by the Taliban as the prove of their power to penetrate Afghan security forces, are especially worrying as security transition plans gather pace.
Under those plans, all foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The alerting rise in rascal shootings has raised more questions about the readiness of Afghan forces to take over.
Including Wednesday’s shooting, there have been thirty-four insider attacks this year, leading to 45 coalition deaths, the absolute majority of them Americans.
They account for 14 percent of all deaths suffered by the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan this year.
That is a sharp increase from 2011, when 35 coalition troops were killed in such attacks, 24 of them Americans.
Afghanistan’s government said last week it would re-examine the files of 350,000 soldiers and police to help curb rogue shootings of NATO personnel. But, in a swipe at neighboring Pakistan and Iran, it also accused “foreign spies” of instigating the attacks.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement on Thursday the latest incident was being investigated.
