Panetta: Recent attacks in Afghanistan are a “last gasp” of Taliban insurgency

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta described the latest attacks launched by Afghan soldiers or policemen against NATO soldiers in Afghanistan as a "last gasp" of a Taliban insurgency "unable to regain lost ground".        

In a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart, Panetta said that the U.S. seeks to find the most appropriate means to protect its troops in Afghanistan. “However, these attacks will not require a strategy adjustment, mainly to help Afghan forces assume the country’s security responsibility by the end of 2014,” he said.    

Afghan forces have been carrying out insider attacks against their international allies, the latest of which occurred today when an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on a vehicle he believed was driven by NATO soldiers on a shared base in the south, slightly wounding a foreign civilian worker.         

The attacks are threatening to undermine a partnership that is key to the handover of security responsibility to the Afghan government and therefore to the entire program for the drawdown of international troops. NATO said it was reviewing protocols for protecting its troops in the wake of the current attack spike.         


LBCI/REUTERS