Insider attacks lead NATO to curb Afghan operations

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO said Monday that it has scaled back operations with Afghan soldiers and policemen to lower the risk of insider attacks and reduce local tensions over an anti-Islam video that prompted protests in Afghanistan.

It’s the second order that curbs contact between foreign troops and their Afghan partners, undermining the mantra that both sides are fighting the Taliban “shoulder to shoulder.”

The directive could jeopardize the U.S.-led coalition’s key goal to get Afghan forces ready to take over security from foreign forces by the end of 2014.

Until now, coalition troops routinely conducted operations such as patrolling or manning outposts with their Afghan counterparts. Under the new rules issued on Sunday by Lt. Gen. James Terry, such operations are no longer routine and require the approval of the regional commander.

Insider attacks have spiked in recent months.

So far this year, 51 international troops have been killed by Afghan forces or militants wearing their uniforms — a development that has fractured the trust between NATO troops and their Afghan allies.

A protest in Kabul over the film that mocks the Prophet Muhammad turned violent Monday, with hundreds of men torching tires, cars and shipping containers and lobbing rocks at a U.S. base on the edge of the capital.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military stopped training about 1,000 members of the Afghan local police, a controversial network of village-defense units that is growing but remains a fraction of the country’s army and police force, which will soon be 352,000 strong.

The coalition downplayed the impact of the directive, saying international forces had not stopped partnering and advising Afghan forces. Coalition officials said the directive was given at the recommendation of key Afghan leaders.

U.S.-led coalition companies remain partnered with Afghan units, but have changed the way they conduct their daily partnering operations, the coalition said.

The order will be in place for an undetermined period of time, according to Lt. Col. Rich Spiegel, chief public affairs officer for the coalition’s operational command.

“It doesn’t mean we’re walking away from these units. We can advise from the next level up,” he said. “It means we may not be out on patrol with them.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. commanders assigned some troops to be “guardian angels” who watch over their comrades in interactions with Afghan forces and even as they sleep.

The U.S. also started allowing Americans to carry weapons in several Afghan ministries and made security more of a consideration in evaluating visits to Afghan government offices. U.S. officials also ordered American troops to carry loaded weapons at all times in Afghanistan.

VIENNA — Iran’s nuclear chief said Monday that “terrorists and saboteurs” might have infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency in an effort to derail his nation’s atomic program. It was Tehran’s harshest attack on the integrity of the U.N. organization and its investigation of allegations that Iran is striving to make nuclear arms.

Fereydoun Abbasi also rebuked the United States in comments to the IAEA’s general conference.

The defiant speech was bound to give a greater voice to hardline Israeli leaders who say that both diplomatic efforts and economic penalties have had no effect on Iran, leaving military strikes as the only alternative.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Iran as “a threat, not only for Israel but for the whole world.” But she said she wants to see a “political solution” and that the international community should work together to try and find one, including the possibility of new sanctions. “The room for political maneuver is not yet exhausted,” she said.