Army ponders changes after insider attack in Afghanistan

Those guys are out there, and they’re in exposed positons and it is a high-risk situation. Gen. Mark Milley, Army chief of staff

washington — It’s too early to tell if training or other changes must be made in light of an insider attack in Afghanistan that killed one American soldier and wounded two others, because there’s some uncertainty about whether the assailant was a disgruntled Afghan soldier or an insurgent infiltrator, the Army’s top officer says.

Gen. Mark Milley, Army chief of staff, said on Friday that the three soldiers who were shot last weekend were protecting members of the new US advisory brigade that deployed to Afghanistan for the first time just five months ago. He said the Army is moving ahead with plans to create more of the training brigades and use them primarily in Afghanistan, although other locations could be considered in the future.

According to officials, the attacker fired on the soldiers at the airfield on the base at Tarin Kowt, in southern Uruzgan Province, a hotbed of Taleban activity. He was taken into custody on the day of the attack, July 7. It was the first death involving the advisory brigade, and the first insider attack in about a year. Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California, was shot by small arms fire and killed. The other two soldiers are in stable condition.

In a message to the media last Saturday, Taleban spokesman Qari Yosuf Ahmadi said the shooting was carried out by a member of the Afghan security forces who acted alone, but the militant group “appreciated” his attack.

The military, said Milley, is still trying to determine if the shooter was from the Taleban or another insurgency or just an angry Afghan soldier. Either way, he said, it doesn’t change the mission of the new advisory teams, working closely with their Afghan partners. Those jobs carry risk.

“Those guys are out there, and they’re in exposed positons and it is a high-risk situation,” Milley said in an interview on Friday. “So casualties are going to occur.”

Despite precautionary steps since then, the threat has continued. Last June, there were two insider attacks within a two-week period.

Speaking to reporters last month, Col. Scott Jackson, commander of the new Security Force Assistance Brigade, acknowledged the possible threat of a friendly fire attack.

“I will tell you honestly, we have had our Afghan partners come to us with intelligence that pre-empted potential attacks, and they have been proactively taking care of their own problems,” Jackson said during a June 13 briefing. —

We have had Afghan partners come to us with intelligence that preempted potential attacks. Col. Scott Jackson, commander of new Security Force Assistance Brigade