Afghanistan policeman kills 3 American troops in Helmand province

Last update 4:50 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. Marines after sharing a meal with them before dawn Friday and then fled into the desolate darkness of southern Afghanistan, the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week.

Thirty-one coalition service members have now died this year at the hands of Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, according to NATO -- a dramatic rise from previous years.

U.S. officials told CBS News correspondent David Martin that the three slain troops were members of a Marine special operations force. Afghan sources in Helmand told CBS News Kabul bureau chief Fazul Rahim that they were part of a team overseeing the training and recruitment of Afghan local police. The sources said it was one of the police officers who opened fire on his mentors during dinner.

Friday's deadly shooting took place in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand province, said U.S. military spokeswoman Maj. Lori Hodge. Sangin was a Taliban stronghold for years and has one of the highest concentrations of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in the country.

Sangin's district chief and the Taliban both identified the gunman as Asadullah, a member of the Afghan National Police who was helping the Marines train the Afghan Local Police.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by telephone that the attacker joined the insurgency after the shooting.

"Now, he is with us," Ahmadi said.

The district chief, Mohammad Sharif, said the shooting happened at a police checkpoint after a joint meal and a security meeting. The meal took place before dawn because of Ramadan, the month in which Muslims abstain from food during daylight hours.

The shooting brings the number of fatal "green-on-blue" incidents - in which Afghan security forces turn on their Western allies - to 25 over the last 12 months, including those which didn't result in coalition fatalities.The attack brings to eight the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan this week, including one civilian working for the State Department.

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Thursday's incident is the second green-on-blue attack this week. On Tuesday, two gunmen confirmed to have been Afghan National Army soldiers turned their weapons on NATO troops, killing a U.S. service member and wounding two others, ISAF confirmed Friday morning.

U.S. Marines and Afghan local policemen (ALP) during a training session at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Jackson, also known as Sabit Khadam, in Sangin, Helmand province, June 6, 2012.

/ Getty

The Taliban claimed responsibility for that shooting, which took place in Paktia province, eastern Afghanistan. The suspects escaped after the attack and a search was underway to track them down.

In a separate attack Wednesday morning, at least one suicide bomber walked up to a group of U.S. troops on foot patrol near the provincial council office in Kunar province, also in the east, and blew himself up, killing three American troops and one civilian working for the State Department's USAID program. There has been no indication that the bomber or bombers in this attack were wearing Afghan uniforms.

The Taliban traditionally steps up attacks in August, but the militant group's claimed success in recruiting rogue forces from the ranks of the Afghan army and police to turn on their Western allies, with whom they work and live very closely as ISAF ramps up its planned transition of security to Afghan forces, has fostered a lack of trust.

While the Taliban often claim they have infiltrated the Afghan security forces and are carrying out these attacks, CBS News reporter John Bentley reported in July that a U.S. Defense Department report maintains the attacks are not carried out by insurgents.

"Investigations have determined that a large majority of green-on-blue attacks are not attributable to insurgent infiltration of the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces), but are due to isolated personal grievances against coalition personnel," the report said.

ISAF spokesman Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz told CBS News the latest attack is, "tragic, but doesn't reflect the security situation." He calls the shooting an "isolated incident".

"We're confident this won't stop operations," he said. "We trust our Afghan partners. But we're looking at how to mitigate incidents."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said he didn't want to "diminish at all the seriousness of the attack" but "it is important within the context here to recognize that missions ... are being conducted ever day, every hour involving U.S. forces and the 330,000 Afghan forces."

He added that the U.S. military "believes that the operational impact [of the attacks] has been negligible."

The Afghan security forces have established an eight-point vetting process. Katz explained that recruits require two letters from local elders as a character reference as well as biometric, medical and drugs checks, but ISAF is still working with the Afghan forces to improve this process.

Nonetheless, early in 2012, top U.S. commander Gen. John Allen ordered American units to select a "guardian angel" to watch over fellow troops, even as they sleep, at joint U.S.-Afghan bases and on joint operations involving live fire - a direct response to the mounting green-on-blue attacks.

Last year, a U.S. Army team led by a behavioral scientist produced a 70-page survey that revealed both Afghan and American soldiers hold disturbingly negative perceptions of the other.

According to the survey, many Afghan security personnel found U.S. troops "extremely arrogant, bullying and unwilling to listen to their advice" and sometimes lacking concern about Afghans' safety in combat. They accused the Americans of ignoring female privacy and using denigrating names for Afghans.

American troops, in turn, often accused Afghan troops and police of "pervasive illicit drug use, massive thievery, personal instability, dishonesty, no integrity," the survey said.

U.S. military officials have downplayed that survey.

The U.S. hopes the Afghan Local Police, a village defense force backed by the national government, will become a key force in fighting the insurgency.

[MatthewJ21]

This is getting pretty bad..i mean the troops are there to train the afghans and in turn they end up killing the troops. thats really not right. feel bad for those serving right now. i have a few friends that are back now and luckily for them they are all done and can relax at home and do whatever like play with airsoft guns that they get from http://airsplat.com/ you just wish that the rest of the troops are able to make it back home safely and do what they did before the war and live a normal life again.

[obbop]

You vile, filthy, disgusting scum lackey politician figureheads of the ruling elite class, corporate USA and other entities you anti-We, the People filth obey bring our troops home NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

I would much rather see our troops marching against the filth that have invaded the federal government and drive them out so that We, the People can rebuild the unrepairable morass that the federal government is now.

[sobobx]

I seldom yell on the internet, BUT GTF out of that cesspool NOW!!!!

[cindyof]

BRING OUR TROOPS BACK !!!!These people do not want help, nor do they deserve. Let them annihilate each other, and let our men protect our own country. Enough is enough. Let's join other countries to help Syria.If they too seem unappreciative, we can pull out as well.

[formerlyluvnut]

ALL our troops, worldwide, need to come HOME. NOW. The hail with the rest of the world; they ALL hate us anyway.

[UForgotPoland]

Our country needs to leave this hellhole! Didn't we learn a single thing from Vietnam? These backwards people do not want us in there lands and actions like this prove it. Many servicemen that served in Afghanistan say the locals despise them and other NATO troops. If the people don;t want us there why are we staying? My guess is the reason we're still there is to hold onto a strategic location in central Asia to give China and Russia stares and I guess to the Joint Chiefs and the President that's worth the live of our men and our treasury.

[josephle2k]

Author of "One Generation After" Elie Wiesel tells the story of the one righteous man of Sodom, who walked the streets protesting against the injustice of this city. People made fun of him, derided him. Finally, a young person asked: "Why do you continue your protest against evil; can't you see no one is paying attention to you?" He answered, "I'll tell you why I continue. In the beginning I thought I would change people. Today, I know I cannot. Yet, if I continue my protest, at least I will prevent others from changing me."

We're not that pessimistic that we can't change people's beliefs or that people will not respond to the message of Liberty and Peace. But we must always be on guard not to have others change us once we gain the confidence that we are on the right track in the search for the Truth.

We cannot know exactly what tomorrow will bring, nor in what time the consequences of bad policy will evolve, so we must strive for Truth and the Preservation of those values that we are convinced have benefited mankind.

We need to give up the militarism of the American Empire if we want to be successful and preserve the American Republic as it was intended. The odds are slim that it will occur without a bloody reaction from those who wield the power over the military-industrial complex, our corrupted political process, the media, our economy, our flawed monetary system, and our personal lives. Regardless, since the principles of Liberty are based on morally sensible ideas, anything we do to preserve them will benefit mankind.

Promoting democracy is a much higher goal of the Neocons than the limited desire to "Save the Republic." Technological advances, the consequences of economic Liberty, have far surpassed our ability and concerns for understanding the importance of the moral values required to maintain the process. Concentration on our material well-being and neglecting of the moral principles that underpin material abundance will result in the loss of Liberty, Prosperity and Peace. Already the signs are ominous: a sharply decreasing standard of living for millions worldwide.

The American Empire is the enemy of American Freedom.
It is every bit as much the enemy of American citizens as it is of its victims around the world...

[jnostromo]

Nothing has been learned from the past 57 years

[pcfogarty]

If they are going to try to continue training under these most outrageous of conditions they need to stop using real rifles and other forms of killing ; dummy hand grenades , rubber knives and frisk all recruits and put them through a body scanner at the beginning of each gathering .

[fiddlestickawshucks]

American troops have been in Afghanistan for more than ten years.!!

Thousands have been killed, wounded or maimed and disabled for life.

What the hell is wrong with Obama, the DOD, Congress and the Pentagon that they don't realize if they haven't been successful in ten years, 2+ more years are not going to change anything.

Somebody needs to find out what the President and the rest of the government agencies get out of keeping our troops over there.

Is it greed, stubborness, failure to accept their responsibility for their mistakes, stupidity, ignorance etc.??!!!

The President, the DOD, Congress and the Pentagon should have learned a long time ago that these savages cannot be trusted.!

I think one of the reasons they don't want to bring these troops home, because they don't have a clue what to do with them when they return.

Thousands of Iraq veterans remain jobless, can barely afford to put food on the table for their families and lie awake at night worrying about losing their homes to the thieving banks, mortgage companies etc.!!!

SAD! SAD! SAD! and totally unacceptable when you take into consideration the the President, the DOD, Congress and the Pentagon might not even still exist if it were not for these brave, selfless people.

If anybody has any suggestions for ending this travesty and helping the veterans who are already home, please post them here.!!