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Panetta: No pattern of Afghan soldier attacks on NATO troops
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that so-called “green-on-blue” attacks in Afghanistan, where supposedly allied Afghan soldiers target NATO troops, remain “sporadic incidents” and have not developed into a broader pattern.
Speaking to reporters Monday en route to Ottawa for a meeting with Mexican and Canadian officials, Panetta acknowledged the difficulties of the attacks, including two shootings on Monday, but said they are “sporadic incidents and I don't think they reflect any kind of broad pattern.”
“This is not easy,” Panetta said. “There are going to be those that, you know, that are vengeful, there are going to be those that decide to use this as a way to express their anger and their concern.”
A man who was apparently a local policeman allegedly killed an American in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, and two British troops were shot and killed in southern Afghanistan, according to CNN.
The green-on-blue violence against American soldiers is simply “a characteristic of counterinsurgency [operations],” Allen told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon.
Allen noted that the majority of the attacks by Afghan soldiers are not due to Taliban infiltration, but rather the result of soldiers who become “self-radicalized,” and that many have also attacked fellow Afghan troops.
So far in 2012, 16 of the 93 NATO troops have been killed in “green-on-blue” attacks, according to CNN.
