News - Afghanistan

United States Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta announced that the US is expanding the number of counterintelligence staff in Afghanistan after the recent sharp rise in insider attacks by Afghan troops.

Panetta said he was deeply concerned by the killings "because of the lives lost and because of the potential damage to our partnership efforts."

This year, more than 37 Nato-led troops have been killed by Afghan allies.

Last Friday, six US troops were killed in two separate incidents.

At the same press conference, General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Military Joint Chief of Staff, said that the military was bolstering counterintelligence expertise at the battalion level and above in Afghanistan.

On Monday, Isaf spokesman Gunter Katz said that the attacks from Afghan soldiers on their foreign counterparts, known as ‘Green on Blue' attacks, have risen this year.

He said more than 26 were out by Afghan soldiers and one was carried out by a civilian.

There are currently 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Of those, 90,000 are from the US.