Afghanistan to spy on its soldiers to end attacks on Western counterparts

Kabul, Feb 21(ANI): Afghanistan will now spy on its own soldiers in an attempt to prevent attacks by Afghan troops on their Western comrades-in-arms.

As part of the plan, agents of the National Directorate of Security, the country's spy agency, will be deployed to monitor Afghan soldiers at every step, the Afghan military authorities said.

The NDS agents will monitor new recruits, conduct more stringent background checks, monitor the young soldiers through training as the part of the plan, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The plan will include both uniformed Afghan intelligence officers mingling with the units and covert operatives among the soldiers who will report back to the NDS, officials said.

The NDS will also try to track Afghan soldiers when they go on leave, as military commanders are concerned about soldiers who visit the Taliban-strongholds, while on leave, where the terror group devises its strategies.

Afghan Defense Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak said the plan aimed to identify and target any potential troublemakers, adding that "every soldier has to become an informer."

The so-called green-on-blue attacks by Afghan soldiers on coalition personnel calimed the lives of at least 77 people in the past five years, with three-quarters occurring since early 2010.

The severity of this threat was highlighted when an Afghan policeman reportedly killed at least one coalition soldier in the southern Kandahar province.

Afghan and American officials said that sowing distrust between ISAF soldiers and their Afghan counterparts has become a Taliban strategy.

"They recognize that the real center of gravity on our side, the thing that holds us together, gives us our strength, is the relationship between Afghans and ISAF," U.S. Army Lt. General Daniel Bolger, commander of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, said. (ANI)