KABUL, Afghanistan — The training of Afghan Local Police and Afghan special operations forces, which account for about 7 percent of all Afghan security forces, has been put on hold for at least a month while their American trainers conduct stricter vetting to try to root out any infiltrators or new recruits who could pose risks to the coalition troops working with them, American officials say.
The move does not affect the vast majority of Afghan forces — more than 350,000 Afghan National Army soldiers and Afghan National Police members — who are still being trained and are still working in the field with American and NATO counterparts, military officials said. The action was first reported online by The Washington Post.
“The training is definitely still going on for the regular A.N.A. and A.N.P.,” said Maj. Steve Neta of the Canadian Air Force, a spokesman for the NATO training mission in Afghanistan. At any given time, there are 25,000 Afghan soldiers and more than 4,000 Afghan national policemen in training, and that is continuing, he said.
But a rash of recent attacks by Afghan forces on American and NATO troops has led American Special Operations commanders in Afghanistan to put a hold on the training of the those Afghan units overseen by American Special Operations forces: Afghan Local Police and Afghan special forces units, which, combined, number over 20,000.
“The training of our partner forces has been paused while we go through this revetting,” said a spokesman for American Special Operations. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the suspension affects only Afghan Local Police and Afghan special operations and commando forces.
“It may take a month or two,” the spokesman said, adding that “this has been done as a precautionary measure. We are still very confident in our vetting procedure.”
There are currently slightly more than 16,000 members of the Afghan Local Police, a relatively new program that has sent American Special Operations forces into more rural areas to train Afghan recruits who are not part of the main Afghan army or police. These Afghan Local Police, while comparatively small in number, are regarded as an important stopgap to secure remote corners of Afghanistan as international troops withdraw.
A spokesman for the American military command in Kabul, Col. Thomas Collins, said the move “should not in any way be perceived as we’re backing away from our Afghan partners. We’re not.”
He added: “We’re simply opening up a little space that will allow us and the Afghans to make sure the correct vetting procedures are being followed.”
American Special Operations forces have suffered devastating attacks in recent weeks by Afghans close to them.
On Aug. 17, two American Special Forces members were killed by a new Afghan Local Police recruit they were training at a small outpost in Farah Province in western Afghanistan. The attacker turned his gun on the Americans after they had finished a training session.
Another American Special Forces service member was wounded and an Afghan police recruit was killed in the shooting. The Americans belonged to United States Forces-Afghanistan, a command separate from the main NATO force.
A week earlier, three Marine Special Operations troops meeting with Afghan local police were killed by an Afghan wearing a national police uniform in Sangin, a district in northeastern Helmand Province.
Still, the American Special Operations spokesman said that these so-called insider attacks are not seen “as a systemic problem with the” Afghan Local Police.
In all, at least 15 American or other international coalition troops have been killed in just the past month either by Afghan forces or other Afghans who were working closely with them. Over the year, at least 45 Western military troops, mostly Americans, most have been killed in such attacks, NATO officials say.
The move does not affect the vast majority of Afghan forces — more than 350,000 Afghan National Army soldiers and Afghan National Police members — who are still being trained and are still working in the field with American and NATO counterparts, military officials said. The action was first reported online by The Washington Post.
“The training is definitely still going on for the regular A.N.A. and A.N.P.,” said Maj. Steve Neta of the Canadian Air Force, a spokesman for the NATO training mission in Afghanistan. At any given time, there are 25,000 Afghan soldiers and more than 4,000 Afghan national policemen in training, and that is continuing, he said.
But a rash of recent attacks by Afghan forces on American and NATO troops has led American Special Operations commanders in Afghanistan to put a hold on the training of the those Afghan units overseen by American Special Operations forces: Afghan Local Police and Afghan special forces units, which, combined, number over 20,000.
“The training of our partner forces has been paused while we go through this revetting,” said a spokesman for American Special Operations. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the suspension affects only Afghan Local Police and Afghan special operations and commando forces.
“It may take a month or two,” the spokesman said, adding that “this has been done as a precautionary measure. We are still very confident in our vetting procedure.”
There are currently slightly more than 16,000 members of the Afghan Local Police, a relatively new program that has sent American Special Operations forces into more rural areas to train Afghan recruits who are not part of the main Afghan army or police. These Afghan Local Police, while comparatively small in number, are regarded as an important stopgap to secure remote corners of Afghanistan as international troops withdraw.
A spokesman for the American military command in Kabul, Col. Thomas Collins, said the move “should not in any way be perceived as we’re backing away from our Afghan partners. We’re not.”
He added: “We’re simply opening up a little space that will allow us and the Afghans to make sure the correct vetting procedures are being followed.”
American Special Operations forces have suffered devastating attacks in recent weeks by Afghans close to them.
On Aug. 17, two American Special Forces members were killed by a new Afghan Local Police recruit they were training at a small outpost in Farah Province in western Afghanistan. The attacker turned his gun on the Americans after they had finished a training session.
Another American Special Forces service member was wounded and an Afghan police recruit was killed in the shooting. The Americans belonged to United States Forces-Afghanistan, a command separate from the main NATO force.
A week earlier, three Marine Special Operations troops meeting with Afghan local police were killed by an Afghan wearing a national police uniform in Sangin, a district in northeastern Helmand Province.
Still, the American Special Operations spokesman said that these so-called insider attacks are not seen “as a systemic problem with the” Afghan Local Police.
In all, at least 15 American or other international coalition troops have been killed in just the past month either by Afghan forces or other Afghans who were working closely with them. Over the year, at least 45 Western military troops, mostly Americans, most have been killed in such attacks, NATO officials say.