WASHINGTON - The US Forces Press Service Army Gen. Martin Dempsey in remarks to the Pentagon's own news service has said that the Afghan government needs to step up and take the problem of insider attacks as seriously as do US commanders and officials.

"We're all seized with the problem. You can't whitewash it. We can't convince ourselves that we just have to work harder to get through it. Something has to change," the Associated Press quoted Dempsey saying.
"But we've got to make sure our Afghan counterparts are as seized about it as we are," he added. "We have to get on top of this. It is a very serious threat to the campaign."

US and NATO officials have discussed extensively in recent weeks the need to improve the screening of Afghan security forces recruits and other precautionary measures that may be taken in the face of the "green-on-blue" attacks that so far this year have killed at least 51 NATO troops.

Dempsey's comments come after six NATO-led soldiers in Afghanistan were killed in less than 24 hours by members of the Afghan police force.

One attack by suspected Afghan police killed four NATO soldiers Sunday morning in southern Afghanistan, just after an earlier attack Saturday afternoon by an Afghan Local Police officer killed two British troops in Helmand.

NATO is still investigating both incidents.
There are nearly 117,000 NATO-led troops in Afghanistan who are slated to leave by the end of 2014. (Tolo News)