KABUL, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces denied reports that the military alliance has discontinued partnering operations with the Afghan forces in efforts to lower the risk of the insider attacks.
"Recent media coverage regarding a change in ISAF's model of Security Force Assistance (SFA) to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) is not accurate. ISAF remains absolutely committed to partnering with, training, advising and assisting our ANSF counterparts." the ISAF said in a statement.
"In response to elevated threat levels resulting from the ' Innocence of Muslims' video, ISAF has taken some prudent, but temporary, measures to reduce our profile and vulnerability to civil disturbances or insider attacks. This means that in some local instances, operational tempo has been reduced, or force protection has been increased.
"These actions balance the tension of the recent video with force protection, while maintaining the momentum of the campaign. We've done this before in other high tension periods and it's worked well. Under this guidance, and as conditions change, we will continue to adapt the force posture and force protection." the ISAF statement added.
So far this year, 33 so called "green on blue" insider attacks have been registered which had claimed the lives of 51 soldiers with the ISAF forces combating in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has been waging an insurgency of more than a decade, and it often claims responsibility for such attacks, saying their fighters infiltrated into Afghan army and police ranks to kill foreign soldiers but the ISAF officials had recently attributed only 25 percent of insiders' attacks to Taliban-linked militants.
A total of eight South African nationals, their driver and three passers-by were killed when a suicide car bombing targeted a minibus in the attack claimed by Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, the second largest insurgent group in the country.
A spokesman for the group told local media a female suicide bomber targeted and killed nine foreigners in retaliation for an anti-Islam film produced by a Jewish American.
The film, titled "Innocence of Muslims," mocks the Prophet Mohammed and has triggered widespread protests across the Muslim countries including Afghanistan.
Related:
6 NATO soldiers killed in Afghan insiders' attacks in 2 days
KABUL, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The green-on-blue attacks carried out by man in Afghan uniform have claimed the lives of six soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) over the past two days in the conflict-ridden Afghanistan.
In the latest string of such deadly attacks, four soldiers of the military alliance lost their lives in the troubled southern region where Taliban militants are active, the NATO-led ISAF confirmed in a statement released here Sunday. Full story
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