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U.S. resumes joint operations with Afghans
EMCS
Member Posts: 4,063
U.S. resumes joint operations with Afghans
By Craig Whitlock, Thursday, September 27, 6:15 PM
Most U.S. and NATO combat troops have resumed joint operations with Afghan forces, the Pentagon said Thursday, although U.S. officials said they remain worried about the threat of fratricidal "insider attacks."
U.S. commanders had substantially scaled back the joint operations 10 days ago in an urgent effort to reduce the vulnerability of U.S. and NATO troops.
At a news conference, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said "most" U.S. and NATO units had "returned to their normal partnered operations" with their Afghan allies. But he offered few details, and other Pentagon officials offered conflicting accounts of how many missions were still being conducted separately.
A spike in the number of insider attacks has undercut the U.S. strategy to end the war by training hundreds of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police to take over responsibility for fighting the Taliban and other insurgents. The Obama administration has pledged to end the current U.S. combat mission by the end of 2014.
Panetta said that the strategy remained sound but that the U.S. military would "take whatever steps are necessary to protect our forces." At least 51 NATO troops - most of them Americans - have been killed this year by insider attacks, accounting for about one in every five combat deaths for the foreign forces.
http://tiny.cc/eulblw
Still SOS
By Craig Whitlock, Thursday, September 27, 6:15 PM
Most U.S. and NATO combat troops have resumed joint operations with Afghan forces, the Pentagon said Thursday, although U.S. officials said they remain worried about the threat of fratricidal "insider attacks."
U.S. commanders had substantially scaled back the joint operations 10 days ago in an urgent effort to reduce the vulnerability of U.S. and NATO troops.
At a news conference, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said "most" U.S. and NATO units had "returned to their normal partnered operations" with their Afghan allies. But he offered few details, and other Pentagon officials offered conflicting accounts of how many missions were still being conducted separately.
A spike in the number of insider attacks has undercut the U.S. strategy to end the war by training hundreds of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police to take over responsibility for fighting the Taliban and other insurgents. The Obama administration has pledged to end the current U.S. combat mission by the end of 2014.
Panetta said that the strategy remained sound but that the U.S. military would "take whatever steps are necessary to protect our forces." At least 51 NATO troops - most of them Americans - have been killed this year by insider attacks, accounting for about one in every five combat deaths for the foreign forces.
http://tiny.cc/eulblw
Still SOS