RUSI Newsbrief, 3 Sep 2013 By Tommaso LaganaOn the evening of 10 February, four British officers were dining – unarmed – of their barracks when a soldier of the local Afghan security forces entered, rifle in hand, and attempted to tug the trigger. Within the ensuing struggle because the officers leapt to intercept him, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Harman was mortally wounded by a bayonet. At his trial, the perpetrator of the attack declared that he had enlisted to strike on the British. This will-be jihadi, it transpired, were persuaded to this plan of action by the local mullah, as a part of a deliberate policy of infiltration.

This incident occurred not in 2013, but in 1905 – an emblematic reminder that insider attacks was a feature of conflict in Afghanistan, and indeed of any conflict involving ‘auxiliary’ local troops, for hundreds of years. The British Army, as a former colonial force, has an extended history of handling insider attacks in theatres as diverse because the Canadian wilderness and the jungles of Singapore. It also has a history of successful co-operation with local forces, whether allied or auxiliary, despite the memory of this having been largely lost after 1945 because the British Army transitioned from a colonial force to an expeditionary one.

Please log in to continue reading.

Continue reading

Posted in Security Systems