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Insider attacks prompt Afghan review

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The military coalition in Afghanistan will conduct background checks on Afghan troops to address the rise in green-on-blue attacks, a U.S. general said.

The U.S. Defense Department said attacks on coalition forces by members of the Afghan military have left 45 soldiers dead so far this year.

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U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, commander of the joint command at the International Security Assistance Force, said Afghan recruits would go through an eight-step vetting process that includes background checks and drug screening.

ISAF leaders, he added, were going through the records of attacks to get a better understanding of the threat factors.

"I would just say that what we all recognize is that this is society that's really been traumatized by 30-plus years of war," said Terry during a news briefing from Kabul. "It also has a gun culture."

Seth Jones, a scholar at the Rand Corp. and former U.S. adviser on Afghanistan, told National Public Radio the vetting process was a "huge, huge undertaking."

Jones added that it's difficult to determine if the growing number of green-on-blue attacks was on the rise "because training happened so quickly, or because the insurgency is making a much stronger, focused effort to infiltrate."

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