US Halts Joint Afghan Patrols After Insider Ambushes

It's becoming so dangerous for US troops to patrol with the nation's Afghan allies that American officials are halting joint military patrols to protect US soldiers from "insider" ambushes. Afghan troops have attacked NATO forces 36 times this year, killing 51, most of them American, reports CBS News. The order was issued after a long weekend in which four American and two British troops were killed in the so-called "green-on-blue" insider attacks, and will remain in effect until further notice, say officials.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey called the surge in insider attacks "a very serious threat to the campaign." Further exacerbating tensions between the two countries are increasingly violent demonstrations against American targets over the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims. And in new bloodshed early today, a female suicide bomber blew up a minibus transporting mostly international airport staff to work on a highway in Kabul, killing 12 people. Two others were killed on the road. Afghan insurgent group Hezb-e-Islami claimed responsibility for the blast, which it said was in response to the anti-Islam video, reports the BBC. (More Afghanistan stories.)