【英语国际】美军从阿富汗首都撤走军事顾问

The U.S. mission to train and advise Afghan security forces is facing unprecedented strains, as a the U.S.-led coalition withdrew its advisers in Kabul following a string of deadly attacks by Afghan service members on American troops.

Ten out of the 60 U.S.-led soldiers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization who died this year have been killed by their Afghan comrades in arms.

Four of the those deaths─including the shooting of an American colonel and major inside the Afghan Ministry of Interior headquarters Saturday─occurred in the past week, amid a wave of unrest triggered by the burning of Qurans at the Bagram U.S. military base north of Kabul.

The shootings led U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the commander of coalition forces, to withdraw hundreds of military advisers working in Afghan government ministries in and around Kabul.

While the U.S. military cast the move as a temporary measure, the decision is a reflection of widespread American concern about the reliability of Afghan partners that is likely to have a lasting impact on critical decisions in the coming months.

Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Bismullah Khan were supposed to travel to Washington in coming days to argue against U.S. plans to cut Afghan security forces from 352,000 to some 230,000 men after most coalition troops withdraw in 2014. They are likely to receive a frosty reception after the latest shootings.

'Americans understand, at some level, that Afghans would be upset by the burning of the Quran,' said Andrew Exum, a former U.S. Army Ranger who served two tours in Afghanistan and is now senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think-tank. 'But Americans do not understand why the United States should continue to send trainers and advisers to a country where those trainers and advisers are liable to be targeted by the very people they are training and advising.'

The attacks on American forces continued on Sunday during an anti-Quran burning protest in northern Afghanistan's Kunduz province. Seven U.S. soldiers were injured when a demonstrator threw a hand grenade at a military base where U.S. Special Operations Forces were training members of the Afghan Local Police force, said local officials. However, there have been no demonstrations in Kabul since Friday.

Afghan officials launched a nationwide manhunt Sunday for the suspected perpetrator of the Ministry of Interior attack─identified by them as Abdul Sabor Salangi, a 25-year-old police officer.

Western officials said Mr. Salangi was a driver for an Afghan intelligence official at the ministry who may have had access to the restricted area where the U.S. advisers were shot in the head.

The Taliban claimed that they dispatched the attacker to kill the Americans in retaliation for the Quran burning. One Afghan intelligence official said Monday that there are suspicions that Mr. Salangi had ties to insurgent groups that may now be hiding the attacker.

Afghan forces raided Mr. Salangi's family home in northern Afghanistan, in an area long seen as a stronghold of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, local officials said, but came up empty handed.

American and coalition officials have sought to cast many of such 'green on blue' shootings as the isolated work of disgruntled Afghan malcontents with no political agenda. That approach began to change after the gunning down of French troops by an Afghan soldier last month prompted Paris to accelerate its pullout.

On Sunday, military officials in Kabul said that they see the 'green on blue' attacks as a serious threat to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, even as they stressed that the common work will continue.

'We are not going to let this divide the coalition,' said U.S. Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the military coalition in Afghanistan. 'We are going to continue to move forward─and this incident is not going to stop that.'

U.S. military officials said that the withdrawn military advisers remain in contact with their Afghan counterparts.

Mohammad Hanif Atmar, who led the Afghan interior ministry until being forced by Mr. Karzai to resign in 2010, said the latest attacks 'create an environment of suspicion' that would make it more difficult for Afghan and coalition forces to work together.

The recent attacks have also become a political issue in the presidential race. Republicans have castigated President Barack Obama for apologizing for the Quran burning incident and called on President Hamid Karzai to offer a similar apology for the killings of Americans by Afghan service members.

Mr. Karzai didn't even mention the American deaths in his opening statement during a news conference on Sunday. He expressed his condolences─but not an apology─only when asked by a reporter about the shootings of Americans.

While his Interior Ministry earlier Sunday identified Mr. Salangi as the chief suspect, Mr. Karzai also kept alive speculation─explicitly rejected by U.S. military officials─that the two Americans may have been killed by another Westerner.

'It is not yet clearly known as to who has committed this and where he was from, whether Afghan or foreigner or any other element involved,' he said.

Mr. Karzai's response was 'unfortunate,' one senior American official said.

Mr. Karzai's remarks Sunday focused instead on the investigation into how the Qurans were burned at Bagram, and on attempts to launch peace talks with the Taliban.

The Afghan president also used the news conference to press his demands that the U.S. quickly cede control of the Parwan detention center at Bagram Airfield and end night raids.

Both issues are central sticking points in stalled negotiations over a deal that would allow the U.S. to retain a strategic military presence in Afghanistan after 2014 and guarantee long-term American support for the country.

'The Afghan leadership has been painfully slow to realize the gravity of these events and to understand how little patience Americans have for the war in Afghanistan,' said Mr. Exum. 'President Karzai has to understand that patience for the continued commitment to Afghanistan is wearing very thin.'

美国为阿富汗安全部队提供训练和咨询的使命面临前所未有的压力，以美国为首的联军从喀布尔撤走顾问人员。此前阿富汗军人向美军发起一连串造成人员伤亡的袭击。

今年以来，以美国为首的北大西洋公约组织(North Atlantic Treaty Organization，简称北约)部队有60名军人身亡，其中10人是被阿富汗战友打死的。

这10人当中，有四人死于过去一周的骚乱，包括上周六美军一名上校和一名少校在阿富汗内政部总部遭到枪击。骚乱起因是喀布尔以北的美军巴格拉姆基地焚烧《古兰经》。

枪击事件发生后，美国海军陆战队上将、联军司令官艾伦(John Allen)从喀布尔内外撤走了数百名在阿富汗政府各部工作的军事顾问。

Xinhua/Zuma Press阿富汗人示威抗议美军焚烧《古兰经》的行为。虽然美军将此举说成是临时措施，但这个决定反映了美方对阿富汗伙伴是否可靠的普遍担忧。这种担忧可能会在接下来几个月对一些关键决策产生深远影响。

按计划，阿富汗国防部长瓦尔达克(Abdul Rahim Wardak)和内政部长克汗(Bismullah Khan)将在未来几天前往华盛顿，反对美国在多数联军部队于2014年撤离后将阿富汗安全部队人数从35.2万削减至23万左右的计划。在最新枪击事件发生后，他们可能会受到冷遇。

曾作为美国陆军游骑兵两度在阿富汗服役、现任华盛顿智库“新美国安全中心”(Center for a New American Security)资深研究员的埃克萨姆(Andrew Exum)说，美国人在一定程度上理解，焚烧《古兰经》会让阿富汗人不满；但美国人不理解的是，美国为什么还要继续派遣教练员和顾问前往一个容易受到服务对象攻击的国家。

周日，在阿富汗北部昆都士省抗议焚烧《古兰经》的示威活动中，继续出现攻击美军的事件。当地官员说，一名示威者向一处军事基地投掷手榴弹，导致七名美军士兵受伤。美军特种作战部队在这处基地训练阿富汗地方警察部队。但在喀布尔，上周五以来没有发生过示威活动。

阿富汗官员周日开始在全国范围内追捕内政部袭击事件的疑凶。据他们说，袭击者是一名25岁的警员，名叫阿卜杜勒•萨布尔•萨兰吉(Abdul Sabor Salangi)。

西方官员说，萨兰吉是阿富汗内政部一名情报官员的司机，他可能有权进入美方顾问被击中头部所在的禁区。

塔利班声称是他们派出这名袭击者打死了两名美国人，以报复焚烧《古兰经》的行为。一位阿富汗情报官员周一说，怀疑萨兰吉跟反叛组织有关系，这些组织现在可能在藏匿他。

当地官员说，阿富汗部队突击搜查了萨兰吉在北部地区的家乡，结果空手而归。这个地区很久以来都被视为反塔利班组织北方联盟(Northern Alliance)的一个要塞。

美国和联军官员一直力求将很多此类“绿对蓝”（阿富汗军人对联军人员）的射杀事件算作阿富汗不满者的孤立行为，而没有政治目的。上个月，法国军事人员被一名阿富汗军人射杀，促使巴黎方面加速了在阿富汗的撤军行动，之后美国和联军的上述做法开始改变。

周日，喀布尔的军事官员强调共同的工作将继续之际，他们也说，他们认为“绿对蓝”的袭击事件是对美国在阿富汗使命的严重威胁。

驻阿富汗联军发言人、美国中校康明斯(Jimmie Cummings)说，我们不会让这件事分裂联军，我们将继续向前推进，这件事不会令我们停下来。

美国军事官员说，撤出的军事顾问们依然与阿富汗的相关人员保持着联系。

曾任阿富汗内政部长的阿特马尔(Mohammad Hanif Atmar)说，最新的一系列袭击事件制造了怀疑的气氛，令阿富汗与联军更加难以合作。2010年，阿特马尔受阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊(Hamid Karzai)所迫辞职。

最近的袭击事件还成为美国总统选举中的一个政治问题。共和党人士抨击奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统就美军焚烧《古兰经》一事道歉的行为，并要求卡尔扎伊就阿富汗军人杀害美国人员的行为做出类似的道歉。

卡尔扎伊在周日新闻发布会的开场白中甚至没有提到美国人员死亡的事。只是在一位记者问他美国人被射杀的事后，他才表达了哀悼之情，但没有道歉。

尽管阿富汗内政部长周日早些时候确定萨兰吉是主要嫌疑人，卡尔扎伊却也未打消猜测──两名美国人可能是被另外一名西方人士杀害的。美国军事官员对此明确否认。

他说，目前还不是很清楚犯案者是何人，是哪国人，是阿富汗人还是外国人，或是有其他背景。

一位美国高级官员说，卡尔扎伊的回答令人遗憾。

卡尔扎伊周日的言论反而强调对巴格拉姆基地焚烧《古兰经》事件的调查，以及与塔利班进行和平谈判的尝试。

卡尔扎伊还利用新闻发布会的机会来坚持自己的要求──美国应该尽快放弃对巴格拉姆机场帕尔旺(Parwan)拘押中心的控制，并结束夜袭。

这两件事是谈判陷入停滞的症结所在。若双方达成协议，美国将可以在2014年后保持在阿富汗的战略军事部署，协议还将保证美国对阿富汗的长期支持。

埃克萨姆说，阿富汗领导层没有认识到这些事件的严重性，不明白美国人对阿富汗战争已经失去耐心。他说，卡尔扎伊总统必须明白，对阿富汗持续承诺的耐心开始耗尽。