Afghanistan pullout: Surge in insider attacks in Afghan army, says US government report

In another indication of the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, a US government report on Friday said that deadly insider attacks by Taliban agent inside Afghanistan army have been on the rise. The report said that a jump was seen in such attacks in the first quarter of this years.

The quarterly report of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said attacks on the Afghan security forces, mainly by the Taliban rebel group, surged 37 percent over the January-March period from a year earlier.

Insider attacks carried out by Taliban agents who had infiltrated the army ranks jumped 82 per cent, said the report.

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The report did not specify the overall number of casualties, saying the data is classified.

But as per figures obtained by the coalition 115 Afghan military personnel were killed and 39 were wounded in 31 insider attacks in first three months of this year.

The report made it clear that such attacks threatened stability of the Afghan government after withdrawal of US troops by September.

It noted that the Afghan government and particularly Afghan security forces remain highly dependent on US support, both financial aid and manpower.

"The complete withdrawal of US troops and US defense contractors from Afghanistan will test whether the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces can sustain themselves and defend the Afghan government without direct US and Coalition military support," the report said.

"The basic risk facing the current and any potential post-peace Afghan government is whether future foreign assistance levels during this uncertain period will be sufficient to prevent its collapse," said John Sopko, the SIGAR head.

The pullout will involve around 2,500 US service members, 7,092 other forces in the US-led coalition, and 16,832 civilian contractors for the Pentagon who were in the country at the beginning of April.

(With inputs from agencies)