US Troops in Afghanistan Face Enemy in Disguise

A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform reportedly shot and killed three American soldiers in Helmand province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Host Lisa Mullins talks to the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Kabul about the problems faced by troops as they withdraw from the country.

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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. There was a stark reminder today that although America’s war in Afghanistan is winding down, it’s not over. A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform apparently shot and killed three U.S. soldiers in Helmand province. The Taliban claimed responsibility. It said the gunman had defected to their side. This is the third time this week that coalition forces have been attacked by Afghan counterparts. The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool is in Kabul. What do you know about what happened?

Aleem Maqbool: Well, we had slightly different narratives on this from NATO and then from local officials. What NATO was saying was that they did acknowledge that three soldiers had been killed, saying they were at a late night meeting in Sangin district of Helmand when they were shot dead by someone, as you say, in Afghan military uniform. What local officials are saying is that they had been lured into a trap basically. They had been promised by a local commander, a man who said he was going to raise a police force against the Taliban. And apparently he had invited these U.S. Special Forces, according to Afghan officials, to a dinner at his checkpost, and he was the one who turned his gun on them, and that he was all the while an insurgent himself, he was someone who worked with the Taliban himself. If coalition forces are going to withdraw from here and leave somewhere which isn’t a haven for militants and can’t be a threat to the outside world again, then of course it has to put something in place when it withdraws, and the suggestion from local officials is that that is precisely what these American troops were trying to do. They were trying to build a force on the ground that might be able to fight the Taliban on their behalf.

Mullins: The question is though, because the Americans are going to be withdrawing, and as you say, they will have to continue to try and raise Afghans to stand up as the Americans move out, does that make Americans more vulnerable, or at least does it make them perceived as being better targets?

Maqbool: Well, if you take this particular case, then of course it does. It somehow has to interact with the local population more in a sense that it has to be able to train them much more to a point where they are all capable of taking over of security of this country by the end of 2014. And we’ve seen incident after incident where, as you say, it’s made them more vulnerable, it’s made them more of a target, and I can’t see that getting anything but worse over the coming months.

Mullins: So how, Aleem, are they looking at the withdrawal of American troops there?

Maqbool: Well, look, there are a lot of people who are fearful of withdrawal because, for example, in this area where we’re talking about a local commander who has proved himself to be dangerous, has it appears killed three coalition forces. Are local people going to rise up against him in favor of U.S. forces? Well, when they know that these coalition troops are going to leave by the end of 2014, they also know that people like this commander are the ones who are going to be in charge of these areas, and so they don’t want to go against them. They want to be on side. They have to look at their own interests, and that is making it even more difficult for coalition forces.

Mullins: The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Kabul. Thank you.

Maqbool: You’re welcome.

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