KABUL - There have been failures in security procedures meant to identify potential killers of Western troops before they join Afghanistan's army and police, NATO-led international forces admitted Monday.
So far this year, 17 foreign troops -- including at least seven Americans and five French trainers -- have been shot dead by Afghan security personnel in 10 separate "green on blue" killings.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is training Afghans to take over responsibility for security for the whole country by the end of 2014, said the deaths sapped morale among its troops.
"Although the incidents are small in number, we are aware of the gravity they have as an effect on morale," ISAF spokesman Brigadier-General Carsten Jacobson said. "Every single incident has an out-of-proportion effect on morale, and that goes for coalition forces as it goes for Afghan national security forces."
Recruits to the Afghan forces undergo an eight-step vetting process, including identification verification, recommendations and criminal background checks, but Jacobson said that investigations into the shootings found lapses.
"What we have found in individual cases is that there was a mistake done here, or there, or there," he said. "The identity papers weren't checked properly, the papers that were coming from village elders were not sufficient, drug tests were not taken regularly or sufficiently or something like that. Wherever we see that, we take that as measures to be taken and improved."
Asked if some of the incidents could have been prevented, he responded, "Afterwards, you always know that you shouldn't have had that car accident."
Among the measures being taken, Afghanistan's intelligence services are hiding agents among new recruits at the country's army and police training schools to try to spot potential gunmen, NATO said.
ISAF also took a number of security measures of its own in response to the shootings, including assigning "guardian angels," soldiers ordered to watch over their comrades as they sleep.
The concept "makes sure that soldiers are not without protection at any stage," Jacobson said.
He dismissed repeated claims by the Taliban, the main militant group waging an insurgency against President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government, that it was behind the attacks.
"The insurgency is claiming nearly every single incident for itself. Our findings are that in the vast majority ... personal grievances are one of the major causes." (AFP)