Two US troops have been gunned down by two Afghan soldiers and an accomplice, the latest of six US service members killed by their Afghan partners since the burning of Korans at a US base last week sent anti-US sentiment soaring.
The killings on Thursday come at a time when international troops have stepped up the training and mentoring of Afghan soldiers, police and government workers so the Afghans can take the lead and foreign forces go home.
The success of the partnership, the focus of the US-led coalition’s exit strategy, is threatened by a rising number of Afghan police and soldiers — or militants disguised in their uniforms — who are turning their guns on their foreign allies.
The latest victims were killed on a joint US-Afghan base in Zhari District of southern Kandahar Province by two Afghan soldiers and an Afghan civilian literacy instructor who fired from a sentry tower, according to US and Afghan officials. NATO forces shot and killed two of the assailants, apparently the soldiers, Pentagon press secretary George Little said.
Last Saturday, two US military advisers were found dead with shots to the back of the head inside the Afghan Ministry of the Interior in Kabul. Two US troops were killed on Feb. 23 by an Afghan soldier during an anti-Western protest over the burning of Korans.
The US apologized for the burning, saying the Islamic texts were mistakenly sent to a garbage burn pit on Feb. 20 at Bagram Air Field.
However, the incident raised what had been simmering animosity toward outsiders to a full boil. Deadly protests raged around the nation for six days — the most visible example of a deep-seated resentment bred by what Afghans view as a general lack of respect for their culture and religion.
Afghans have staged demonstrations in the past over NATO airstrikes that have inadvertently killed civilians, deadly traffic accidents involving US military vehicles and night raids that Afghans say violate their privacy, disrespect women and lead to the detention of innocents. But desecration of the Muslim holy book struck at the heart of the Afghan people and their religion.
Thousands unleashed their anger in the largest display of anti-Americanism so far in a war that has claimed the lives of at least 1,779 members of the US military
The demonstrations, which left more than 30 people dead, were also a venue for war-weary Afghans to express their frustration that tens of thousands of international troops and billions of US dollars in foreign aid have not brought them peace or major improvements to their daily lives. Hundreds of Western advisers were told not to report to government ministries and a few are just starting to trickle back.
At the Pentagon, Little called the latest attack troubling but said the US intended to “stay the course” with its basic strategy for transitioning security responsibility to the Afghans.
Afghan animosity for foreigners does not necessary mean they all want the international forces to leave.
A UN survey released in January, before the protests, reported that 68 percent of Afghans surveyed said foreign troops should stay for the time being, compared with about a quarter who said they should leave immediately. The survey by an independent research firm conducted in-person interviews with 7,278 Afghans in October last year in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces, although some randomly chosen districts were inaccessible because of the threat from Taliban insurgents. It quoted a margin of error of 1.6 percentage points.
Unrest provoked by the Koran burning has eased, but analysts predict anti-US sentiment will remain at heightened levels for some time.
“This one isn’t going away. I think this act fatally compromises our efforts in Afghanistan,” said Michael Corgan, an international relations professor at Boston University. “The burnings immediately put at greater risk all the Americans who were doing good things in Afghanistan building and restoring infrastructure.”
The clash of cultures has played out on the battlefield where Afghan security forces have increasingly partnered with their foreign counterparts. Since 2007, Afghan security force attacks on coalition troops have resulted in the deaths of more than 75 coalition personnel and the wounding of more than 110 others, the Pentagon said.
A study commissioned by the US military in May last year said the incidents are no longer isolated and are “provoking a crisis of confidence and trust among Westerners training and working with the Afghan security forces.”
Afghans generally view coalition troops as “a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving, profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology,” the report said.
Coalition troops generally view the Afghan forces as a “bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous and murderous radicals.”
Afghan and US troops almost came to blows in March 2010 on a base in Helmand Province in the south after Afghan soldiers sliced off the ears of a puppy that the American troops had adopted. The Afghans were treating the animal as a typical Afghan fighting dog that has its ears and tails removed so its canine opponents can’t grab them in battle.
The Afghan forces, according to the study, complain that the US troops urinate in public, use excessive profanity, loudly pass gas, insult them and drink or eat in front of them during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, a time when Muslims fast during the day. They claim US troops use faulty intelligence to raid Afghan homes and humiliate them by publicly searching them in front of Afghans civilians.
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