US Public Wants out of Afghanistan as 3 Western Troops Killed by Afghan Troops

There were two attacks on US and British troops in Afghanistan on Monday, by members of the Afghanistan armed forces. The American was killed in “the east,” while the two British officers were shot in Helmand province.

The USG Open Source Center translated a Pashto report on the Helmand incidents:

‘ Man in Afghan military uniform kills two ISAF soldiers in south
Afghan Islamic Press
Monday, March 26, 2012
Document Type: OSC Translated Excerpt…

Excerpt from report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency:

Kabul, 26 March: An armed man wearing Afghan National Army (ANA) uniform has killed two ISAF soldiers.

ISAF forces say that an armed man who was wearing ANA uniform has shot dead two ISAF soldiers in southern Afghanistan.

(Passage omitted: ISAF statement)

Meanwhile, a well-informed news source in Lashkargah city, capital of Helmand Province (southern Afghanistan), told Afghan Islamic Press this incident took place in a PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) centre of foreign forces in Lashkargah city.

Officials in Helmand and Ministry of Defence have not commented so far.

(Description of Source: Peshawar Afghan Islamic Press in Pashto — Peshawar-based agency, staffed by Afghans, that describes itself as an independent “news agency” but whose history and reporting pattern reveal a perceptible pro-Taliban bias; the AIP’s founder-director, Mohammad Yaqub Sharafat, has long been associated with a mujahidin faction that merged with the Taliban’s “Islamic Emirate” led by Mullah Omar; subscription required to access content; http://www.afghanislamicpress.com)’

Bad relations between the US and Afghanis have been fueled by a Qur’an-burning incident, in which the US disposed of the Qur’ans used by prisoners at Bagram prison at an incinerator, and the Panjwai massacre in which a US sergeant stands accused of indiscriminately killing civilians, mainly children.

The gloomy outlook for the war in the short term is being mirrored in a new opinion poll that shows that 69 percent of the US public want to see their country withdraw from Afghanistan. Just last November nearly half of the public still wanted to stay.

Now, only a third say that the US should stick to its timetable for withdrawal by 2014. Most want to get out sooner.