Taliban deny reports of talk with Afghan officials

[February 01, 2012]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The Taliban have denied reports that they are planning to send representatives to meet with Afghan government officials in Saudi Arabia.

Rumors have swirled for days that President Hamid Karzai's government was seeking direct talks to be held in the kingdom.

A statement Wednesday from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid says those reports are "baseless."

Mujahid says negotiations to end the 10-year-old war cannot begin until trust is established between the Islamist militants and the U.S. and its international coalition. He says that process has not started.

The Taliban have so far expressed willingness only to talk with the U.S., calling the Afghan government a puppet. Washington insists eventual talks must be Afghan-led and involve Karzai's government.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday, in what the international coalition described as an attack and an Afghan commander called an accident.

It was the sixth report since Dec. 26 of an Afghan soldier -- or an insurgent posing as one -- turning his weapon on the international troops working to train the Afghan security forces. The string of attacks has raised concerns about relations between Afghan troops and their foreign allies.

International forces and the Afghan army disagreed on exactly what happened in the latest killing.

Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the international military force, said Afghan soldiers detained the gunman after he turned his weapon on a NATO service member and killed him Tuesday night. The coalition gave no other details.

Afghan National Army commander Sayed Malluk confirmed the killing, which he said happened during a night watch on a base in Helmand province's Marjah district. But he said the Afghan soldier, who has been in the army for more than two years, told investigators the shooting was an accident.

"It wasn't intentional. It was a mistake," Malluk said. He said an investigation has been opened.

After an Afghan soldier killed four French soldiers on Jan. 20, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that France would speed up the exit of its troops from Afghanistan and that it would ask NATO to hand over all combat operations to Afghan forces in 2013 instead of by the end of 2014.

Sarkozy at the time said the attacker was a Taliban infiltrator, but Afghan and NATO investigators have said it was too early in the investigation to know his motivation.

The rising number of attacks by supposed friendly Afghan forces has prompted speculation that Taliban insurgents or sympathizers may be infiltrating national army and police as they rapidly expand to meet a 2014 target for Afghan forces to take over security and most international troops to leave.

There have been at least 35 attacks on international troops since 2007 by Afghan soldiers, police or insurgents wearing their uniforms, according to a tally by The Associated Press. The number rose sharply last year to 17, up from six in 2010.

In Kabul, NATO spokesman Cummings said Wednesday that the rising number of attacks doesn't point to any pattern.

"We feel they're isolated cases," he said. "There's no indication these incidents are linked or part of any coordinated effort."

Cummings said that the 130,000-strong international force works daily with more than 300,000 Afghan security personnel, mostly without problems. He said that NATO is satisfied with Afghanistan's vetting process for army recruits.

Tuesday's attack brought to 34 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year.

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to hear testimony on Wednesday on insider attacks by Afghans.

In testimony prepared for delivery Wednesday to the House Armed Services Committee, U.S. defense officials said attacks by Afghan security forces have killed 70 coalition personnel and wounded 110 since 2007.

They said that in most cases the Afghans acted out of personal motivation and were not controlled or directed by insurgent groups. The second most common circumstances involved insurgents impersonating or infiltrating Afghan security forces.

The U.S. defense officials' testimony, obtained by The Associated Press in advance of Wednesday's hearing, includes improvements in the program made after an attack at Forward Operating Base Frontenac in March 2011 that killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four others. The base is in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, and lawmakers have been demanding details about the incident.

"The insider threat is an issue of increasing significance to coalition forces and Afghan National Security Forces operating in Afghanistan," the defense officials said. "It creates distrust between our forces and their Afghan counterparts during a critical juncture in Afghanistan."

[Associated Press; By KAY JOHNSON]

Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

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