Afghanistan soldiers killing Australians linked to insurgency: Defense Force

Afghanistan soldiers killing Australians linked to insurgency: Defense Force
Australian troop commander in Afghanistan on Tuesday said Afghan soldiers who killed four Australian troops in separate attacks have been all linked to the insurgency.

Australia commanding officer of the Mentoring Task Force (MTF-3) in Uruzgan Province Lieutenant Colonel Chris Smith, said there was no connection between the three attacks, in which 10 other Australian soldiers were wounded.

"We don't fully understand the motives of all of those individuals but we have some hints," he was quoted by ABC News on Tuesday.

"It would appear that all three are unrelated and it would appear that they are insurgent related ... either directly or indirectly."

Smith reported that one of the individuals was found to have Taliban propaganda.

"We believe that plus some other indicators would suggest that he has come to dislike foreign intervention in Afghanistan. But we are not sure of what the reason is," he said.

He said insurgents helped another make his getaway, and the most important aspects they have learned from this incident was focusing intelligence resources on the Afghan National Army (ANA) to try and identify, through some indicators, individuals who might be likely to do something like this.

Earlier on May 30, an Afghan soldier shot dead Lance Corporal Andrew Jones, an army cook. He fled but was tracked to his home district and killed by US troops when he resisted arrest.

After the incident, on October 29, three Australian troops, Corporal Ashley Birt, 22, Lance Corporal Luke Gavin, 27, and Captain Bryce Duffy, 26, were killed and wounding seven others by an Afghan soldier who opened fire on a group of Australian soldiers at a patrol base in northern Kandahar province. He was immediately shot dead.

In the latest incident on November 8, an Afghan soldier shot and wounded three Australians troops and remained unfound. Defence force was therefore conducting investigations of these attacks.

Editor: Xiong Tong

English.news.cn   2011-12-20 21:12:14              
CANBERRA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua)