Afghan Local Police

"Landep News"

Afghan Local Police

An Afghan police officer on Friday killed nine of his colleagues as they were sleeping in the eastern province of Paktika then escaped in a governmental vehicle full of guns and ammunition. The incident is one of the deadliest cases of fratricide in Afghanistan over the last few years. The surge of fratricide actions, in which Afghan servicemen kill American or Afghan colleagues brings concerns about the state of the war in this country at a critical time, when the Taliban started their own “spring offensive.”

Another Afghan police officer on Monday killed an U.S. officer, and two British soldiers were killed the same day in the province of Helmand. On Friday, one NATO service member died in an improvised explosive device attack, and another was killed on Thursday by an insurgent. Both were killed in southern Afghanistan.

Both assailants in Paktika were said to be members of the Afghan Local Police, a force of local recruits armed and trained to fight against the insurgents. They are considered to be the key to the gaining of trust of the people, and to repelling the insurgents, as the coalition troops in Afghanistan are making plans to leave by 2014.

The killer on Friday is said to have left with 10 AK-47s and 25 magazines. The Afghan and the American authorities are investigating the case, and two of his brothers were brought in for questioning.

Los Angeles Times reports that the man was in the service of the Taliban or other insurgent group, and that the killing took place in a district not far away from the Pakistani border. Police is said to investigate whether the victims were drugged so that they may not awake from their sleep as they heard shots.

Associated Press reports that the man killed his fellows at 3:00 a.m. ostensibly to take guard duty. He killed the fellows servicemen and their commander then piled their weapons in the car and went away.

The chief of the district where the incident happened identified him as Asadullah, saying he went by one name as many Afghans do. According to the chief, one of Asadullah’s brothers was among the killed, as well as two of the commander’s sons.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said that the shooter was one of their members. The Taliban said that that the man took their guns and brought them to the insurgents.

It would not be the first time the Afghan troopers kill some of their own. In March, a villager in the force was accused of killing nine members of his unit in southern Uruzgan province. The killing also occurred during the sleep of his colleagues, and it remains unclear whether he was the one to pull the trigger or only allowed a killer in the base. The man was never apprehended.

The infiltration of the Afghan Local Police by the Taliban is more difficult because the recruitment is being made at a local level and the men are vetted by the elders of the community, which means that they know each other.

The coalition in Afghanistan on Thursday decided to apply the recommendations made by the general John Allen, the leader of the coalition, by which the American troops operating in Afghanistan must have one of them at all time watching their backs as they train, work or sleep.

The order applies to all the bases where Americans and Afghans work together and is said to hurt the degree of trust that is being built between the two sides. The idea of placing “guardian angels” at all times follows a spate of attacks on the American troops by their Afghan colleagues.

The surge of violence comes after the incidental burn of the Quran in February, when an American soldier incidentally burnt the holy book of the Islam in a military base. The incident caused a violent reaction on the part of the population of Afghanistan, which protested violently in many parts of the country.

A few weeks ago, the already strained ties come under supplemental pressure as an American sergeant killed 17 people in two Afghan villages. He shot the people and then burnt their bodies.

The man surrendered to the base and was extracted and taken to a pretrial prison in Kansas where he was charged with 17 counts of murder, and other counts. He is expected by the Afghan population to stand on trial in Afghan, as a precondition the Afghans have for continuing the negotiations with the American for the continuation of the cooperation in the post-war era.

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