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"Green-on-blue" attacks by Afghan forces on British and other foreign troops are an insurgent tactic that is difficult to deal with, a senior British commander has admitted to MPs.
Lieutenant General David Capewell, the UK's joint forces commander, was giving evidence to the Commons cross-party defence committee, which also heard that British and other Nato forces would remain in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 deadline ending ground combat operations, though it is unclear in what form.
"It is difficult to deal with, but we are all determined to get to grips with this," Capewell said of the attacks on Nato troops by Afghan security forces. Better training, force protection and vetting – including psychological tests and biometric screening – were among the measures being introduced to try to prevent such attacks, he said. "But you can never have a perfect system."
Brigadier Doug Chalmers, who has just returned from commanding Britain's 9,500-strong force in Helmand province, told the MPs that Afghan commanders were "equally shocked" by the attacks. He said that after talking to British soldiers engaged in advising and training Afghan forces on the ground, he was sure the attacks had not dented their morale.
Asked whether he seriously believed that Afghan forces would be sustainable once Nato-led troops gave up their ground combat role by 1 January 2015, Capewell replied that it was "an assumption we have to make". Asked who they would be loyal to, the general answered: "I rather hope to the Afghan government."
David Cameron has announced that the number of British troops in Afghanistan will be cut by 500 by the end of this year. Dame Mariot Leslie, Britain's ambassador to Nato, told the MPs that there may be an opportunity next year "to make further withdrawals", though she emphasised that no decision had yet been taken.
However, she made clear that Nato had agreed in principle to maintain a military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 in addition to any bilateral arrangements made between individual countries and Kabul. Nato countries had recently agreed to an "initiating directive" paving the way for long-term help for Afghan forces from both Nato and non-Nato countries, including Sweden, Ukraine, Georgia, Australia and New Zealand, she said.
The British government had not yet decided what military role it would have in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Leslie made clear. There is a widespread assumption that British and US special forces will remain in the country as well as trainers and advisers.
Capewell said preparations had already begun to remove a huge amount of military equipment from Afghanistan, either through the north or through Pakistan, in what he called the "biggest redeployment operation in a generation". As many as 500 extra troops may be deployed to help with the extraction operation, he added.
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