Afghan troops cause 1 in 5 NATO casualties

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47211012/ns/us_news-christian_science_monitor/#.T5vN-O1qP8s


Afghan special forces hold their guns after a battle April 16 near the Afghan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The latest killing of a U.S. soldier at the hands of an Afghan counterpart — this time of a U.S. Special Operations Forces soldier by a U.S.-trained Afghan commando — raises anew concerns about America’s ability to build a credible Afghan security force before 2014, when U.S. combat forces are scheduled to leave the country.

In total, so-called green-on-blue killings now account for 20 percent of the 84 NATO casualties in 2012.
The fatal shooting during a joint night raid Thursday marks the first killing of a U.S. Special Forces operative by one of the elite, highly trained Afghan commandos, who are meant to be more carefully vetted than their conventional force counterparts. Largely as a result, the commandos have been widely praised by U.S. forces for their competence.

Indeed, Afghan special forces units earlier this month were tapped to take over responsibility for a key aspect of U.S. strategy going forward — namely, the controversial night raids that have polarized the Afghan community. U.S. commanders have emphasized that these raids, in particular, are key to the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Insurgents do not have night vision technology, after all, and are particularly vulnerable to coalition force operations that take place in the dead of night, they say.