THE insider murder of three Diggers last week has led to Australian special operations troops suspending training of Afghan Special Forces soldiers under a NATO ban.
Defence was last night unable to say if the ban would have any effect on the training of Afghan troops by non-special forces Diggers in Oruzgan.
However, a review has been under way since the deaths of three Australian soldiers last Wednesday in a "green on blue" attack by a rogue Afghan soldier.
As Australian troops last night confirmed capturing an insurgent leader linked to last week's suspected killer, NATO and the US said training of Afghan local police and Afghan special operations forces would be suspended for one or two months.
The move will affect up to 30,000 of more than 350,000 Afghan National Army soldiers who will be re-vetted to weed out any rats in the ranks after more than 40 insider murders this year and more than 110 in total in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Defence Minister Stephen Smith and the Defence Department did not return calls last night.
The moves will raise new questions over Australia's presence in Afghanistan as the commitment faced further pressure after Afghani President Hamid Karzai strongly rebuked Australian troops for killing two men while hunting the rogue soldier who killed the three Aussie Diggers.
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