Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Hundreds of ANA soldiers held over insider attacks

KABUL (PAN): Hundreds of Afghan National Army soldiers have been detained or sacked over rising insider attacks on NATO-led troops in different parts of the country, a defence ministry official said on Wednesday.

Since the beginning of the current year, 45 International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers, mostly American, have been killed in 33 green-on-blue attacks by Afghan security personnel.

Addressing a news conference in Kabul, defence ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi called the increasing attacks a source of serious concern for the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Worried by the incidents, the US military said earlier in the week that its special forces had put on ice training for 1,000 Afghan police recruits to vet existing members.

“So far, hundreds of people have either been arrested or expelled from the army. We have found evidence against some people and some suspicious people have been arrested,” Gen. Azimi said.

Investigations over the past seven months had led to the detention and termination of hundreds of suspects, the spokesman said, explaining that there were no foreigners among the detainees.

He alleged some regional countries, unhappy over the growing capacity of local security forces, especially the army, were trying to create mistrust between Afghan and ISAF troops.

Without naming anyone, the spokesman claimed that the regional countries were in an effort to disrupt the training programme for Afghan forces.

The process of transferring inmates from the Bagram detention centre to Afghan-controlled prisons was about to be completed, he said.

Of the 3,082 Bagram detention centre inmates, 3006 have been shifted to Afghan jails, with 34 still in US custody. The rest were released before the inmates were handed over to Afghan authorities.

from Pajhwok
by Hasan Khitab on Sep 5, 2012 - 14:28   

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