Afghan insider attacks 'cannot be stopped'

28 Sep 2012, 5:31 pm   -   Source: AAP
The Afghan Ambassador to Australia says attacks by Afghan soldiers cannot be 'completely' stopped. (AAP)

The Afghan Ambassador to Australia says attacks by Afghan soldiers cannot be 'completely' stopped. (AAP)

Afghan Ambassador to Australia Nasir Andisha says attacks by Afghan soldiers on their Western allies cannot be "completely" stopped.

Afghanistan's top diplomat in Australia has conceded the deadly insider attacks on Western soldiers in his country cannot be completely stopped.

As NATO-led troops resumed their joint operations with Afghan forces following a week-long suspension, Afghan Ambassador Nasir Andisha admitted the increasingly common so-called "green on blue" attacks could not be stamped out altogether.

"We cannot completely finish these kinds of attacks," he told a Canberra audience.

But equally, Western forces cannot give up on their training and mentoring mission, he said.

"We need to work together, and we have to devise some strategies to reduce this."

Seven Australian soldiers have been killed by their supposed Afghan allies since May last year.

Three - Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate - were murdered by a rogue Afghan soldier at a base in Oruzgan province just last month.

According to the Pentagon, 51 coalition troops have been killed in 35 insider incidents this year alone - equal to about 20 per cent of all coalition casualties.

August was the worst month for such attacks since the war began, with nearly one in three international coalition deaths caused by Afghan allies.

In an unusually frank address, Mr Andisha agreed the insider attacks had been devastatingly effective at undermining trust between Western and Afghan forces.

And in an apparent contradiction of the official American and Australian line, Mr Andisha suggested the majority of recent insider attacks were committed by Taliban insurgent infiltrators.

NATO has tried to play down the Taliban role in attacks, claiming they are carried out by a tiny number of Afghan soldiers often over cultural differences or personal disputes.

But the Taliban claim responsibility for many of the attacks, boasting they are part of a deliberate plan to sow distrust between foreign and Afghan troops.

Indeed, the shootings have threatened to derail NATO's flagship strategy of training Afghan security forces to take over when the bulk of the 130,000 foreign troops leave the country by the end of 2014.

A spike in insider attacks led to a halt to all joint activities between coalition and Afghan troops.

But US Secretary of Defence on Friday announced most coalition units had returned to "partnered" operations.

"We must and we will take whatever steps are necessary to protect our forces," he said.

"But I also want to underscore that we remain fully committed to our strategy of transitioning to Afghan security control."

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