Pentagon targets 'insider' killings by Afghan forces

The U.S. military's top general met with senior officials in Afghanistan on Monday to attempt to stop a recent wave of attacks by Afghan soldiers and police against international forces in the country.

Once an anomaly, attacks from inside the Afghan security forces have been climbing in recent months. There have been 30 such attacks so far this year, up from 11 in 2011.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, landed at Bagram Air Field outside Kabul earlier in the day. Dempsey and the commander of U.S. Central Command, Marine Gen. James R. Mattis, met with NATO and U.S. Afghan commander Gen. John Allen in Kabul and discussed the progress of the Afghanistan campaign, a statement issued by the coalition said.

Allen said in the statement that they discussed "how to maintain momentum against the insurgents," adding that international forces continued to support a push to train and equip Afghans in preparation of the departure of most international combat forces at the end of 2014.

"The campaign remains on track," Allen said in the statement.   Dempsey and Mattis also met with a number of senior Afghan and coalition leaders, the statement said.

10 U.S. soldiers killed in 2 weeks

Ahead of the talks, a spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan said Dempsey would be bringing up the rising number of attacks by Afghan forces in his discussions.  

"He's certainly talking about a number of issues including progress with the (military) campaign and the like," Jamie Graybeal said. "He's also obviously talking about the insider attacks," he added, declining to provide further details.  

In the latest such attack Sunday, two Afghan policemen turned their weapons on U.S. troops in Kandahar province, killing an American service member, officials said. That raised the death toll to 10 U.S. troops killed in such attacks in the space of just two weeks.  

Sunday's attack happened in Kandahar's Spin Boldak district near the border with Pakistan. One of the attackers was killed when the troops returned fire and the other escaped, Graybeal said.  

A U.S. Defence Department official confirmed that the dead service member was American. The official spoke anonymously because the nationality of the deceased had not been officially released.

The Taliban have been actively recruiting members of the Afghan security forces, saying in a statement last week that they considered these turncoat attacks a major part of their strategy against international forces.  

U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to encourage him to work with U.S. commanders to ensure more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits. It was disclosed Friday that U.S. troops have been ordered to carry loaded weapons at all times in Afghanistan, even when they are on their bases. The order was a precaution against such insider attacks.