Afghan army says Taliban possess sophisticated system for infiltration

Kabul, Mar 4 (ANI): The Taliban has a sophisticated system in place to infiltrate Afghanistan's security forces, an Afghan army general has warned.

Infiltration has come under sharper focus because of a string of fatal attacks by Afghan security forces on US soldiers since the desecrating of the holy Quran at a NATO base last month ignited widespread protests.

"Placing the rogues inside the army is well-planned by the enemies. The Taliban give them special training," the Daily Times quoted General Abdul Hameed, top army commander for the southern region of Afghanistan, as saying.

"We must enhance intelligence gathering on the movements of recruits, tap their cell phones and we must find out who they are in contact with outside the army," he added.

Two US soldiers were shot and killed on Thursday in an attack involving at least one Afghan believed to be a soldier and a civilian, Western and Afghan officials have said.

The killings at a base in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan came less than a week after two senior US officers were gunned down in the Afghan Interior Ministry by what Afghan security officials said was a police intelligence officer.

The Taliban have proven remarkably resilient in the face of far superior Western firepower.

"One of the reasons enemies infiltrated inside the army is because they are not properly identified when they are enrolled," Hameed said.

"The procedure is that new recruits must present birth certificate or any other documents to prove their identity but many present fake documents or don't have any," he added. (ANI)