Tweet
Panetta to Karzai: Thank U.S. for sacrifices rather than criticize
By Amir Ahmed and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN October 6, 2012
(CNN) -- The U.S. defense chief called on President Hamid Karzai to thank Americans for the sacrifices of those who fought and died in Afghanistan rather than level criticism at the United States.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's comments Friday followed accusations by Karzai that the United States is not doing enough to fight terror in neighboring Pakistan.
Karzai also said the United States is failing to supply Afghan forces with weapons it needs to fight insurgents.
"Look, we have made progress in Afghanistan because there are men and women in uniform who have been willing to fight and die for Afghanistan's sovereignty," Panetta told reporters shortly after landing in Lima, Peru, for a meeting with Latin American defense officials.
Latest Afghan attack: A troubling first?
"Those lives were lost fighting the right enemy not the wrong enemy, and I think it would be helpful if the president, every once in a while, expressed his thanks for the sacrifices that have been made by those who have fought and died for Afghanistan, rather than criticizing them."
The sharp reaction from Panetta, a rare public dressing down of the head of a country, came a day after Karzai accused the United States and NATO of attacking insurgents in Afghanistan rather than targeting the support they receive from Pakistan.
"The U.S. and NATO should go to the places where the roots of terrorism exist. They are saying one thing but acting contrary to that," Karzai said at a news conference in Kabul, according to CNN affiliate Tolo TV.
Karzai also threatened to turn to Russia and China among others if the United States did not supply Afghanistan with equipment needed to fight the insurgency.
"I asked the U.S. government to equip our air force with weapons, intelligence and transport planes -- we still haven't received a response from them," he said. "Our discussions will continue next week as well, and if they show no interest in this, we will decide whether to purchase from Russia, China, India or any other country."
Karzai's criticism of the United States come as relations between Kabul and Washington have steadily eroded in recent months, pushed in part by the accidental killing of civilians and the U.S. military's refusal to surrender a number of prisoners to Afghan control.
Tensions have been further exacerbated by attacks against coalition troops by Afghan troops or insurgents disguised in security uniforms that have left dozens dead.
The timing of Karzai's criticism comes as the United States surpassed a military casualty milestone last month, with more than 2,000 U.S. troops killed in the 11-year war.
Karzai laid some of the blame on the United States for the shelling of Afghanistan's eastern border provinces by insurgents inside Pakistan, saying his forces were not sufficiently equipped to respond and the United States should have stepped up.
"According to the Afghan-U.S. strategic pact, the U.S. is committed to defend Afghanistan against any such foreign threat until the Afghan forces find the ability," he said. "We asked them several time but they never accepted that these attacks were occurring."
Panetta said the United States remains committed to timetable to withdraw American combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Khan Leads Drone Protest in Taliban Territory
Ayaz Gul, Sharon Behn VOA News October 6, 2012
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's opposition politician Imran Khan on Saturday led a convoy of some 500 vehicles including some 30 U.S. activists in an unprecedented march toward Taliban territory to protest CIA-led drone strikes in the country's tribal areas.
Some 3,000 party supporters waved red and green PTI party flags from their cars, beat drums and shouted their support of the cricket star turned politician as he led the so-called peace march into the impoverished west of the country and into the South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border.
Khan had shrugged off warnings of violence before the convoy left the capital Islamabad. But VOA's Ayaz Gul reports tensions were high on the slow-moving eight-hour car journey to Khan's hometown of Mianwali near Pakistan's tribal areas.
"One could see that Imran Khan himself was pretty nervous, because he was rarely stepping out of his vehicle, even though this convoy was moving at a very slow pace," said Gul.
Analysts said earlier the march was a way of Khan trying to gain political capital as the country readies for national elections in 2013. Reporter Gul says the march may have been a turning point for Khan, who will by vying for power in upcoming vote.
"This is going to bring a lot of attraction to Pakistan, to his political party both locally and internationally, and that is what is going to help raise his political profile," Gul added.
Khan, whose PTI party is most popular with the youth of Pakistan, supports talking with the Taliban. He said before he left that the CIA-coordinated strikes targeting militants were counterproductive.
Khan added that they kill and terrorize innocent civilians, feeding into growing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and creating new fighters as a result.
"If you cause human damage, these people will seek revenge, and then the militants will increase," Khan explained.
Some 30 U.S. peace activists with the anti-war group CodePink joined the march. Activist leader Medea Washington said they were trying to show Pakistan that not all Americans agreed with the drone policy.
The so-called peace march was to stop overnight in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan before heading toward the South Waziristan tribal district on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik was in Washington to discuss, among other topics, the issue of drones which Pakistan considers illegal and a violation of its sovereignty.
Washington insists the strikes are an effective weapon against militants operating in Pakistan's northwest.
In Afghanistan, cultural cluelessness can be deadly
Washington Post By Javid Ahmad Opinions Saturday, October 6, 2012
Javid Ahmad, a native of Kabul, is a program coordinator for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
The uptick in insider or “green-on-blue” attacks by members of Afghan security forces against their U.S.and NATO counterparts has seriously undermined NATO’s trust in its Afghan partners and is straining the U.S.-Afghan military relationship. Gen. John Allen, the commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, recently told CBS News’s “60 Minutes” that he is “mad as hell” about the attacks, adding, “We’re willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign. But we’re not willing to be murdered for it.”
Such attacks have killed more than 50 allied troops this year, including 30 Americans, up significantly from the 2011 toll. These episodes underscore a growing threat and a challenge to the U.S. exit strategy. Predictably, the assaults have become an effective tool for the Taliban, which seeks to drive a wedge between Afghan and U.S. forces.
Fewer than a quarter of the attacks have been attributed to Taliban infiltration, which President Hamid Karzai has pinned on foreign intelligence services, largely Pakistan’s. The Pentagon has said the attacks’ underlying causes are personal animosity, grudges and cultural frictions from resentful Afghan soldiers. Allen has cited short tempers, owing to the month-long Ramadan fast in August, though this was not the first Ramadan or first hot summer in Afghanistan since the beginning of the Afghan mission.
In response, Washington temporarily scaled back joint operations, and training of some Afghan forces was suspended temporarily so that soldiers could be rescreened and the process for screening Afghan army and police recruits amplified. The U.S. intelligence presence in Afghanistan has been expanded; NATO soldiers have been ordered to be within arm’s reach of a loaded weapon at all times; and “guardian angels,” or spies, have been planted in most Afghan units.
While these efforts may help, effectively countering the incidents will require greater cultural and social knowledge of Afghan security forces — and lack of cultural awareness is still too absent from the conversation.
The Afghan Defense Ministry only recently issued pamphlets, titled “Cultural Understanding — A Guide to Understanding Coalition Cultures,” to educate Afghan soldiers on the practices of American and coalition troops.
Karzai has publicly bemoaned many U.S. actions, saying that U.S. troops overlook important aspects of Afghan culture, especially during night raids. Most American soldiers are no more educated to be culturally sensitive than are ordinary Afghan soldiers, and they all carry individual and cultural baggage. Too often, the Taliban exploit these weaknesses to woo villagers who have been upset or embarrassed when they see or hear of NATO troops infringing on their homes and mosques, violating their privacy during searches, killing innocent people, burning Korans or appearing to express disrespect for family and local values.
Senior U.S. officials recognize that much more could be done to educate troops in Afghanistan on local norms. But such awareness is not always practiced, even in joint bases or training facilities. Afghan soldiers have reportedly been verbally abused or ridiculed in front of other soldiers, and they are said to be increasingly undermined by foreign troops. A 2011 unclassified study of mutual perceptions of more than 600 Afghan security personnel and U.S. soldiers noted that many Afghan soldiers found U.S. soldiers to be “extremely arrogant, bullying, unwilling to listen to their advice, and were often seen as lacking concern for the safety of civilian[s] and [Afghan soldiers] during combat.”
The Defense Department should embrace a more culture-centric approach to our Afghan partners. While U.S. service members are supposed to undergo cursory training on Afghan culture and customs, the military appears to concentrate on soldiers who are to have regular contact with locals. Too many U.S. soldiers receive just a half-day’s cultural awareness seminar or a PowerPoint presentation before being deployed.
The cultural advisers embedded with foreign military and civilian teams — who are to provide advice and simplify communication in local languages — are also insufficient. Most are U.S.-educated civilian professionals employed by the military or defense contractors, and they are often disconnected from daily Afghan life. Many have been recruited from the Afghan diaspora, and they are extravagantly paid — usually $180,000 to $220,000 per year. Afghan soldiers distrust many of these Western advisers, whom they see as out to make money and/or as spies for U.S. troops.
U.S. and NATO troops need to work more closely with civilian professionals and linguists to adopt a more culturally tolerable communication style. Greater respect for local culture and improved treatment of Afghan forces would categorically minimize the odds of Afghan forces becoming willing to kill their U.S. and NATO partners. There will always be some uncertainty in Afghanistan. But greater cultural understanding would alleviate some of the tension that continues to produce violence.
Gunmen attack NATO container in Pakistan, driver, cleaner injured
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified gunmen in Pakistan' s southwest region attacked a container, carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, and injured its driver and his assistant, police in the region said Saturday.
The driver and his assistant received bullet injuries in Mastung area of Balochistan and were shifted to Quetta, the provincial capital.
Officials said that the container loaded with goods was on its way from Karachi to Afghanistan when unknown gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire at the container.
The assailants also set the container on fire. Later, the attackers managed to escape.
The local militia force rushed to the site of attack and conducted a search operation but no one was arrested.
The police also registered a case against unknown attackers and started investigation into the incident.
No group claimed responsibility. Taliban militants are blamed for such attacks.
Some 70 percent supplies are reportedly transported for nearly 150,000 US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Afghan insider attacks may tie to Haqqani
Officials thought strikes were linked to Taliban
Associated Press By Robert Burns 05/10/2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Haqqani insurgent network, based in Pakistan and with ties to al-Qaida, is suspected of being a driving force behind a significant number of the "insider" attacks by Afghan forces that have killed or wounded more than 130 U.S. and allied troops this year, American officials said Friday.
Until now, officials had said the attacks seemed to stem either from personal grievances against the allies or from Taliban infiltration. The Taliban has publicly claimed to be orchestrating the campaign to subvert the U.S.-Afghan alliance.
New data provided to The Associated Press this week also reveal that in addition to 35 U.S. and allied troops killed in insider attacks last year, 61 were wounded. Those included 19 in a single attack in the eastern province of Laghman on April 16, 2011, in which six American servicemen were killed. Thus far in 2012 there have been 53 killed and at least 80 wounded, the figures showed.
Haqqani involvement in the plotting would add a new dimension to that group's insurgent activity, which has been marked largely by spectacular attacks against targets inside Kabul.
Haqqani leaders have pledged allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, but the group largely operates independently. The two groups have a shared interest in evicting foreign forces.
The U.S. officials said that although there is no hard evidence tying the Haqqanis to specific attacks, the pattern of shootings and the movements and backgrounds of some of the shooters -- including travel into Pakistan shortly before the shootings -- point to a likely connection to the group Washington last month officially labeled a terrorist organization.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss inferences drawn from internal U.S. military analyses of a string of murderous attacks over the past two years that have angered the allies, embarrassed the Afghan government and threatened to undermine the war effort. The officials were not authorized to make the comments publicly.
The U.S.-led military coalition recently slowed, temporarily, its partnering with some Afghan forces, partly in response to a recent spike in insider killings.
The data on the attacks provided to the AP reveal that shootings in 2012 have been concentrated more in the Pashtun south and the swath of Pashtun territory that forms the southern approaches to Kabul. In 2011 the attack pattern was more dispersed, although the largest number occurred in the south and the east.
The internal military analyses, based in part on that data, indicate that a number of shooters were recruited into the Afghan army or police forces from Pashtun areas in eastern Afghanistan -- including the provinces of Paktika, Paktia and Khost -- where the Haqqanis wield great influence, the officials said.
In some cases these Afghans -- most of whom had served in uniform for six months of less -- returned to those areas on leave from their army or police duties, or briefly crossed into Pakistan, shortly before turning their guns on American or allied soldiers, the officials said.
Officials say the Afghan government is now watching such movements more closely and taking other steps to prevent additional insider attacks, although the U.S. believes they will not end.
Of the 38 reported attacks so far this year, 10 happened in Kandahar province, the spiritual and traditional home of the Taliban, and 10 happened in neighboring Helmand province, also a heavily Pashtun area.
Ten others were in or near a Haqqani-influenced swath of territory along the southern approaches to Kabul, including the latest attack on Sept. 29, in which Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel T. Metcalfe, 29, of Liverpool, N.Y., and a U.S. civilian were killed by Afghan soldiers. They were killed in the same district of Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, where a July 3 attack by a rogue Afghan soldier wounded five American soldiers.
"The truth of it is, the removal of this threat completely would be extremely difficult because of the varying nature of the motivations" of the attackers, said Australian Brig. Gen. Roger Noble, a senior operations officer on the staff of the Kabul-based international coalition.
Noble said that while he knew of no Haqqani ties to the attacks, the killings are a means of dividing the Afghans from their allies that is "right up their alley."
Jeffrey Dressler, an analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, who has extensively studied the Haqqani network, said Friday that U.S. suspicions may be well-founded.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Amir Ahmed and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN October 6, 2012
(CNN) -- The U.S. defense chief called on President Hamid Karzai to thank Americans for the sacrifices of those who fought and died in Afghanistan rather than level criticism at the United States.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's comments Friday followed accusations by Karzai that the United States is not doing enough to fight terror in neighboring Pakistan.
Karzai also said the United States is failing to supply Afghan forces with weapons it needs to fight insurgents.
"Look, we have made progress in Afghanistan because there are men and women in uniform who have been willing to fight and die for Afghanistan's sovereignty," Panetta told reporters shortly after landing in Lima, Peru, for a meeting with Latin American defense officials.
Latest Afghan attack: A troubling first?
"Those lives were lost fighting the right enemy not the wrong enemy, and I think it would be helpful if the president, every once in a while, expressed his thanks for the sacrifices that have been made by those who have fought and died for Afghanistan, rather than criticizing them."
The sharp reaction from Panetta, a rare public dressing down of the head of a country, came a day after Karzai accused the United States and NATO of attacking insurgents in Afghanistan rather than targeting the support they receive from Pakistan.
"The U.S. and NATO should go to the places where the roots of terrorism exist. They are saying one thing but acting contrary to that," Karzai said at a news conference in Kabul, according to CNN affiliate Tolo TV.
Karzai also threatened to turn to Russia and China among others if the United States did not supply Afghanistan with equipment needed to fight the insurgency.
"I asked the U.S. government to equip our air force with weapons, intelligence and transport planes -- we still haven't received a response from them," he said. "Our discussions will continue next week as well, and if they show no interest in this, we will decide whether to purchase from Russia, China, India or any other country."
Karzai's criticism of the United States come as relations between Kabul and Washington have steadily eroded in recent months, pushed in part by the accidental killing of civilians and the U.S. military's refusal to surrender a number of prisoners to Afghan control.
Tensions have been further exacerbated by attacks against coalition troops by Afghan troops or insurgents disguised in security uniforms that have left dozens dead.
The timing of Karzai's criticism comes as the United States surpassed a military casualty milestone last month, with more than 2,000 U.S. troops killed in the 11-year war.
Karzai laid some of the blame on the United States for the shelling of Afghanistan's eastern border provinces by insurgents inside Pakistan, saying his forces were not sufficiently equipped to respond and the United States should have stepped up.
"According to the Afghan-U.S. strategic pact, the U.S. is committed to defend Afghanistan against any such foreign threat until the Afghan forces find the ability," he said. "We asked them several time but they never accepted that these attacks were occurring."
Panetta said the United States remains committed to timetable to withdraw American combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Khan Leads Drone Protest in Taliban Territory
Ayaz Gul, Sharon Behn VOA News October 6, 2012
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's opposition politician Imran Khan on Saturday led a convoy of some 500 vehicles including some 30 U.S. activists in an unprecedented march toward Taliban territory to protest CIA-led drone strikes in the country's tribal areas.
Some 3,000 party supporters waved red and green PTI party flags from their cars, beat drums and shouted their support of the cricket star turned politician as he led the so-called peace march into the impoverished west of the country and into the South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border.
Khan had shrugged off warnings of violence before the convoy left the capital Islamabad. But VOA's Ayaz Gul reports tensions were high on the slow-moving eight-hour car journey to Khan's hometown of Mianwali near Pakistan's tribal areas.
"One could see that Imran Khan himself was pretty nervous, because he was rarely stepping out of his vehicle, even though this convoy was moving at a very slow pace," said Gul.
Analysts said earlier the march was a way of Khan trying to gain political capital as the country readies for national elections in 2013. Reporter Gul says the march may have been a turning point for Khan, who will by vying for power in upcoming vote.
"This is going to bring a lot of attraction to Pakistan, to his political party both locally and internationally, and that is what is going to help raise his political profile," Gul added.
Khan, whose PTI party is most popular with the youth of Pakistan, supports talking with the Taliban. He said before he left that the CIA-coordinated strikes targeting militants were counterproductive.
Khan added that they kill and terrorize innocent civilians, feeding into growing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and creating new fighters as a result.
"If you cause human damage, these people will seek revenge, and then the militants will increase," Khan explained.
Some 30 U.S. peace activists with the anti-war group CodePink joined the march. Activist leader Medea Washington said they were trying to show Pakistan that not all Americans agreed with the drone policy.
The so-called peace march was to stop overnight in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan before heading toward the South Waziristan tribal district on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik was in Washington to discuss, among other topics, the issue of drones which Pakistan considers illegal and a violation of its sovereignty.
Washington insists the strikes are an effective weapon against militants operating in Pakistan's northwest.
In Afghanistan, cultural cluelessness can be deadly
Washington Post By Javid Ahmad Opinions Saturday, October 6, 2012
Javid Ahmad, a native of Kabul, is a program coordinator for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
The uptick in insider or “green-on-blue” attacks by members of Afghan security forces against their U.S.and NATO counterparts has seriously undermined NATO’s trust in its Afghan partners and is straining the U.S.-Afghan military relationship. Gen. John Allen, the commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, recently told CBS News’s “60 Minutes” that he is “mad as hell” about the attacks, adding, “We’re willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign. But we’re not willing to be murdered for it.”
Such attacks have killed more than 50 allied troops this year, including 30 Americans, up significantly from the 2011 toll. These episodes underscore a growing threat and a challenge to the U.S. exit strategy. Predictably, the assaults have become an effective tool for the Taliban, which seeks to drive a wedge between Afghan and U.S. forces.
Fewer than a quarter of the attacks have been attributed to Taliban infiltration, which President Hamid Karzai has pinned on foreign intelligence services, largely Pakistan’s. The Pentagon has said the attacks’ underlying causes are personal animosity, grudges and cultural frictions from resentful Afghan soldiers. Allen has cited short tempers, owing to the month-long Ramadan fast in August, though this was not the first Ramadan or first hot summer in Afghanistan since the beginning of the Afghan mission.
In response, Washington temporarily scaled back joint operations, and training of some Afghan forces was suspended temporarily so that soldiers could be rescreened and the process for screening Afghan army and police recruits amplified. The U.S. intelligence presence in Afghanistan has been expanded; NATO soldiers have been ordered to be within arm’s reach of a loaded weapon at all times; and “guardian angels,” or spies, have been planted in most Afghan units.
While these efforts may help, effectively countering the incidents will require greater cultural and social knowledge of Afghan security forces — and lack of cultural awareness is still too absent from the conversation.
The Afghan Defense Ministry only recently issued pamphlets, titled “Cultural Understanding — A Guide to Understanding Coalition Cultures,” to educate Afghan soldiers on the practices of American and coalition troops.
Karzai has publicly bemoaned many U.S. actions, saying that U.S. troops overlook important aspects of Afghan culture, especially during night raids. Most American soldiers are no more educated to be culturally sensitive than are ordinary Afghan soldiers, and they all carry individual and cultural baggage. Too often, the Taliban exploit these weaknesses to woo villagers who have been upset or embarrassed when they see or hear of NATO troops infringing on their homes and mosques, violating their privacy during searches, killing innocent people, burning Korans or appearing to express disrespect for family and local values.
Senior U.S. officials recognize that much more could be done to educate troops in Afghanistan on local norms. But such awareness is not always practiced, even in joint bases or training facilities. Afghan soldiers have reportedly been verbally abused or ridiculed in front of other soldiers, and they are said to be increasingly undermined by foreign troops. A 2011 unclassified study of mutual perceptions of more than 600 Afghan security personnel and U.S. soldiers noted that many Afghan soldiers found U.S. soldiers to be “extremely arrogant, bullying, unwilling to listen to their advice, and were often seen as lacking concern for the safety of civilian[s] and [Afghan soldiers] during combat.”
The Defense Department should embrace a more culture-centric approach to our Afghan partners. While U.S. service members are supposed to undergo cursory training on Afghan culture and customs, the military appears to concentrate on soldiers who are to have regular contact with locals. Too many U.S. soldiers receive just a half-day’s cultural awareness seminar or a PowerPoint presentation before being deployed.
The cultural advisers embedded with foreign military and civilian teams — who are to provide advice and simplify communication in local languages — are also insufficient. Most are U.S.-educated civilian professionals employed by the military or defense contractors, and they are often disconnected from daily Afghan life. Many have been recruited from the Afghan diaspora, and they are extravagantly paid — usually $180,000 to $220,000 per year. Afghan soldiers distrust many of these Western advisers, whom they see as out to make money and/or as spies for U.S. troops.
U.S. and NATO troops need to work more closely with civilian professionals and linguists to adopt a more culturally tolerable communication style. Greater respect for local culture and improved treatment of Afghan forces would categorically minimize the odds of Afghan forces becoming willing to kill their U.S. and NATO partners. There will always be some uncertainty in Afghanistan. But greater cultural understanding would alleviate some of the tension that continues to produce violence.
Gunmen attack NATO container in Pakistan, driver, cleaner injured
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified gunmen in Pakistan' s southwest region attacked a container, carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, and injured its driver and his assistant, police in the region said Saturday.
The driver and his assistant received bullet injuries in Mastung area of Balochistan and were shifted to Quetta, the provincial capital.
Officials said that the container loaded with goods was on its way from Karachi to Afghanistan when unknown gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire at the container.
The assailants also set the container on fire. Later, the attackers managed to escape.
The local militia force rushed to the site of attack and conducted a search operation but no one was arrested.
The police also registered a case against unknown attackers and started investigation into the incident.
No group claimed responsibility. Taliban militants are blamed for such attacks.
Some 70 percent supplies are reportedly transported for nearly 150,000 US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Afghan insider attacks may tie to Haqqani
Officials thought strikes were linked to Taliban
Associated Press By Robert Burns 05/10/2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Haqqani insurgent network, based in Pakistan and with ties to al-Qaida, is suspected of being a driving force behind a significant number of the "insider" attacks by Afghan forces that have killed or wounded more than 130 U.S. and allied troops this year, American officials said Friday.
Until now, officials had said the attacks seemed to stem either from personal grievances against the allies or from Taliban infiltration. The Taliban has publicly claimed to be orchestrating the campaign to subvert the U.S.-Afghan alliance.
New data provided to The Associated Press this week also reveal that in addition to 35 U.S. and allied troops killed in insider attacks last year, 61 were wounded. Those included 19 in a single attack in the eastern province of Laghman on April 16, 2011, in which six American servicemen were killed. Thus far in 2012 there have been 53 killed and at least 80 wounded, the figures showed.
Haqqani involvement in the plotting would add a new dimension to that group's insurgent activity, which has been marked largely by spectacular attacks against targets inside Kabul.
Haqqani leaders have pledged allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, but the group largely operates independently. The two groups have a shared interest in evicting foreign forces.
The U.S. officials said that although there is no hard evidence tying the Haqqanis to specific attacks, the pattern of shootings and the movements and backgrounds of some of the shooters -- including travel into Pakistan shortly before the shootings -- point to a likely connection to the group Washington last month officially labeled a terrorist organization.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss inferences drawn from internal U.S. military analyses of a string of murderous attacks over the past two years that have angered the allies, embarrassed the Afghan government and threatened to undermine the war effort. The officials were not authorized to make the comments publicly.
The U.S.-led military coalition recently slowed, temporarily, its partnering with some Afghan forces, partly in response to a recent spike in insider killings.
The data on the attacks provided to the AP reveal that shootings in 2012 have been concentrated more in the Pashtun south and the swath of Pashtun territory that forms the southern approaches to Kabul. In 2011 the attack pattern was more dispersed, although the largest number occurred in the south and the east.
The internal military analyses, based in part on that data, indicate that a number of shooters were recruited into the Afghan army or police forces from Pashtun areas in eastern Afghanistan -- including the provinces of Paktika, Paktia and Khost -- where the Haqqanis wield great influence, the officials said.
In some cases these Afghans -- most of whom had served in uniform for six months of less -- returned to those areas on leave from their army or police duties, or briefly crossed into Pakistan, shortly before turning their guns on American or allied soldiers, the officials said.
Officials say the Afghan government is now watching such movements more closely and taking other steps to prevent additional insider attacks, although the U.S. believes they will not end.
Of the 38 reported attacks so far this year, 10 happened in Kandahar province, the spiritual and traditional home of the Taliban, and 10 happened in neighboring Helmand province, also a heavily Pashtun area.
Ten others were in or near a Haqqani-influenced swath of territory along the southern approaches to Kabul, including the latest attack on Sept. 29, in which Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel T. Metcalfe, 29, of Liverpool, N.Y., and a U.S. civilian were killed by Afghan soldiers. They were killed in the same district of Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, where a July 3 attack by a rogue Afghan soldier wounded five American soldiers.
"The truth of it is, the removal of this threat completely would be extremely difficult because of the varying nature of the motivations" of the attackers, said Australian Brig. Gen. Roger Noble, a senior operations officer on the staff of the Kabul-based international coalition.
Noble said that while he knew of no Haqqani ties to the attacks, the killings are a means of dividing the Afghans from their allies that is "right up their alley."
Jeffrey Dressler, an analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, who has extensively studied the Haqqani network, said Friday that U.S. suspicions may be well-founded.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com