* NATO soldiers up security to protect against rogue attacks
* Nearly as many Afghan personnel killed as NATO troops
* Many Afghan soldiers worry about comrades’ allegiances
* Some officials use relatives, tribe members for security
By Hamid Shalizi and Jack Kimball
KABUL, April 1o (Reuters) – While NATO soldiers worry
whether an Afghan partner might turn from an ally to a lethal
foe, Afghan soldier Sayed Rahim says he’s afraid his own
comrades at a small outpost in eastern Paktika province will
kill him.
“There are some soldiers who have Taliban war songs on their
cellphones,” Rahim said. “Do we do our duty, or should we watch
out for these guys who will kill us one day?”
While successive attacks by rogue Afghan security forces
against NATO allies worry Western commanders, less-known
incidents of Afghan-on-Afghan violence within the security
forces point to Taliban infiltration nearer to home.
More than a decade since coalition forces toppled the
Taliban, NATO forces and the Western-backed government are
scrambling to build up local security forces ahead of the
withdrawal of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
The surge in attacks by lone Afghan security force members
on NATO troops has raised concern over the ability of Afghan
soldiers and police to take primary responsibility against the
tenacious insurgency in the two-and-a-half years still left.
Insider attacks have killed 17 NATO soldiers this year,
forcing the coalition to take new steps to safeguard troops
working with Afghans, including “guardian angel” protectors.
Personal grievances, battle stress, and domestic problems
are behind more attacks than Taliban sympathies, according to
NATO forces, who put the number of incidents by Islamic militant
infiltrators this year in single digits.
The NATO coalition says a similar number of Afghan troops
and police have died at the hands of their own compatriots.
“I can’t really sleep. Soldiers don’t trust one another very
much. When I go to sleep I fear someone will shoot me dead,”
said Rahmatullah, a comrade of Rahim’s near the Pakistan border,
through which insurgents cross with reinforcements and material.
“We are also very fearful of food and night guards but what
can we do? We are soldiers and have to do the job,” the
24-year-old said in a province where an Afghan policeman this
month drugged nine colleagues and shot them dead as they slept.
“EXTREME ATTEMPT TO INFILTRATE”
In a country with myriad ethnic and political divisions,
many Afghan officials have turned to close relatives or
tribesmen to protect them as infiltration worries mount.
“They feel safer with their relatives or tribesmen around
them for security, not with strange faces. But we make sure to
properly train them,” one security source said, declining to be
named because of security sensitivities.
“The officials believe their own men won’t target them. It’s
their choice.”
But even shielding by close family or ethnic allies does not
always keep them safe.
In July last year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s younger
half-brother, one of the most powerful men in southern
Afghanistan, was killed at home by a highly-trusted bodyguard.
The highly-contested and divided political loyalties within
one of the world’s poorest countries are set to intensify as
national elections near in 2014 with no clear successor for
Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from another term.
Add the withdrawal of foreign troops the same year and the
volatile country could slide into another cycle of bloodletting.
Key to avoiding more bloodshed will be the transition from
coalition forces to Afghan security personnel who NATO hopes
will be ready to wrest control over regions of the country where
major insurgent groups continue to wage attacks.
But the large size of the Afghan army and police, now at
about 250,000, makes it difficult to stop infiltration.
Afghan counter-intelligence agents are being placed into
police and army units while there are more regular checks of
biometric data taken on all Afghan security personnel against
that of Taliban militants or supporters.
“There’s an extreme attempt by the enemy to infiltrate us,”
an Afghan security official told Reuters.
Police have already cracked down in Herat province, where 70
officers were arrested for corruption, criminal activity or ties
to the Taliban. The programme is expected to be rolled out to
other provinces over the next year, the security official said.
Tensions between Afghans and Western forces have also
ratcheted up after the killing of 17 Afghan villagers for which
a U.S. soldier has been charged and the burning of copies of the
Muslim holy book at a NATO base.
“Foreign soldiers are very suspicious of us and they think
anyone from us will kill them,” soldier Rahim in Paktika said.
“It’s the fault of the government and foreigners because
they let anyone in but don’t care where the new recruits come
from and whether they have something to do with Taliban.”
(Additional reporting by Kamal Khan in Khost; Editing by Rob
Taylor & Kim Coghill)
