Afghan Policeman kills 9
Associated Press reports that an Afghanistan policeman, Asadullah, known by that single name, awoke for his guard shift at 0300, and then proceeded to kill nine of his mates while they slept, one of whom was Asadullah’s own brother. Then he loaded all of their weapons into a pickup truck and drove off into the night.
The motive for the killing was not known, but police in the area blamed the Taliban for the attack. Paktika is a stronghold of the Haqqani network, a Pakistani-based group with ties to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Although they mostly attack U.S.-led coalition forces, they have often carried out assaults and bombings against the Afghan army and police.
“This man is a coward. What he did is part of the Taliban conspiracy,” Khan said.
Oh, I see. When it’s Afghans killing US troops, there’s no conspiracy, but when they kill each other, it’s a Taliban conspiracy. Now I understand how that works.
Category: Terror War
This will be the new tactic. The Daily Mail yesterday mentioned what General Allen is calling ‘Guardian Angels’, In the Civil War, they called that Picket Duty, in Basic, it was called 50% Security. My question as an Afghan Vet, is why haven’t we been doing this at the bigger bases since the very beginning? We did it on patrol and at the smaller JSS’ it is a good thing, and just having Tower Guard isn’t enough anymore.
WE-NEED-TO-GET-OUT-NOW!!
Leave these desert camel jockeys to kill each other.
They may claim to have “civilization”, but it’s not our Western civilization, and we’ll never be able to change them, not for too many generations that it’s not worth it to waste the effort and energy. Leave them to their 7th century mentality.
Spin Factor
The Haqqanis excel at subversion, so I believe that this guy is likely a plant. He didn’t just kill his comrades but deserted with truckload of weapons.
From the article “The Afghan Local Police, or ALP, provide security in villages and remote areas that cannot be staffed by the Afghan army and police.
U.S. special forces have been training the village-level fighting forces in hopes of countering the Taliban insurgency – a concept similar to the one that turned the tide of the Iraq war. The ALP, however, is commanded and run by the Afghan government and police.”
These guys though called police were really tribal auxillaries or quasi laskkar(militia) entities, raised to defend their local village. This program attempts to mimic the awakening or Son of Iraq success in Iraq. The problem is these entities have never been successful beyond predation of the very people their supposed to protect in Afghan history, which is why locals fear their reintroduction. Second there is no longer a true tribal(despite what westerners say) hierarchy or leadership, like the Highland Scots or the Arabs of Arabia. This initiative will never get us out of Afghanistan in itself, it must be backed by a quality army to be conceivable.
This guy was almost certainly a plant or had been a member/sympathiser of the enemy beforehand. He was likely scooped or conscripted into the police unknowingly.
It should be Lashkar above.
[…] background checks April 1st, 2012 On Friday, I wrote about an Afghan by the name of Asadullah who gunned down nine of his fellow Afghanistan National […]