[Tolo News] United States Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
announced that the US is expanding the number of counterintelligence staff in Afghanistan after the recent sharp rise in insider attacks by Afghan troops.
Panetta said he was deeply concerned by the killings "because of the lives lost and because of the potential damage to our partnership efforts."
This year, more than 37 NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
-led troops have been killed by Afghan allies.
Last Friday, six US troops were killed in two separate incidents.
At the same presser, General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Military Joint Chief of Staff, said that the military was bolstering counterintelligence expertise at the battalion level and above in Afghanistan.
On Monday, Isaf front man Gunter Katz said that the attacks from Afghan soldiers on their foreign counterparts, known as 'Green on Blue' attacks, have risen this year.
He said more than 26 were out by Afghan soldiers and one was carried out by a civilian.
There are currently 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Of those, 90,000 are from the US.