Three US troops killed by man in Afghan army uniform

[Geee]

Fox News:

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A man in an Afghan army uniform shot and killed three American service members on Friday morning in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military command said, the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week. The Taliban claimed the shooter joined the insurgency after the attack.

The shooting took place in Sangin district of Helmand province, said U.S. military spokeswoman Maj. Lori Hodge. She gave no details and said the military were investigating.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by telephone that the attacker, whom he identified as a member of Helmand police named Asadullah, had joined the insurgency after his attack.

Ahmadi said the man had been helping U.S. forces train the Afghan Local Police troops.

The U.S. is hoping the Afghan Local Police will be a key force to fight the insurgency after most international troops withdraw.

The attack is the third this week on coalition soldiers by Afghans who are training to take over once most international forces leave in 2014.

On Tuesday, two gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others in Paktia province in the east. And on Thursday, two Afghan soldiers tried to gun down a group of NATO troops outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan. No international forces were killed, but one of the attackers was killed as NATO forces shot back.

This year has seen a rising number of so-called "green-on-blue" attacks in which Afghan security forces, or insurgents disguised in their uniforms, kill their U.S. or NATO partners.

So far this year, 30 coalition troops have been killed in 20 such attacks, according to an Associated Press tally. That compares with 11 fatal attacks and 20 deaths the previous year. In 2007 and 2008 there was a combined total of four attacks and four deaths.

[Geee]

Slap: Iraq Prepares to Release Terrorist Accused of Killing U.S. Soldiers

 

(CNSNews.com) – Iraqi authorities are on the verge of releasing a leading Shi’ite terrorist wanted by the United States for the killing of American soldiers there, but the Obama administration maintains that the U.S. has “a good and robust and strategic partnership” with Baghdad.

The case of Ali Musa Daqduq, one of the most senior Hezbollah figures ever to have been in U.S. custody, threatens to become a heated political issue in the U.S., with Republican critics accusing the administration of botching the affair.

The Lebanese national allegedly was a key link between Hezbollah, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force, and violent Shi’ite “special groups” held responsible by the Pentagon for numerous deadly attacks targeting American troops.

Counterterrorism specialist Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy described Daqduq this week as “one of the most senior and dangerous Hezbollah commanders ever apprehended.”

Daqduq, suspected in the 2007 killings of five American soldiers – four of whom were abducted and murdered – was in U.S. hands until late last year when he was handed over the Iraqi authorities shortly before the last troops left Iraq.

At the time some GOP lawmakers, having unsuccessfully pressed earlier for Daqduq to be tried before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, expressed grave concerns that he would never be held to account for his actions.

Republicans Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and independent Joe Lieberman (Conn.) said in a statement they were “deeply concerned that Daqduq will never have to answer for his involvement in killing U.S. citizens, that he could be released from Iraqi custody for political reasons, and that he would then return to the fight against the United States and our friends.”

But White House press secretary Jay Carney said the Iraqis had assured the U.S. that justice would be done: “We take this case extremely seriously, and for that reason have sought and received assurances that he will be tried for his crimes.”

A U.S. military commission subsequently filed charges, including counts of murder and terrorism against Daqduq, and lodged a formal extradition application. But Iraqi courts dropped charges against him and last week the country’s Central Criminal Court threw out the extradition request.

The U.S. government is appealing the ruling yet appears reluctant to pressure its ostensible partners in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, in public at least.

 

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/slap-iraq-prepares-release-terrorist-accused-killing-us-soldiers

[Pepper]

@Geee

 

Tragic loss.

 

Edit: All were Special Forces.