From Slobodan Lekic, the AP:  The surge of assaults by Afghan soldiers and police on their foreign allies will not derail plans to draw down international troops from Afghanistan, but in the meantime, NATO will "do everything it takes" to stop such insider attacks , the military alliance’s top official said Tuesday.

"Our goal, our strategy, our timetable remain the same," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

The United States and its allies are pushing to have Afghan forces take over security for the country by the end of 2014. That effort has been imperiled by the spike in insider attacks, which have killed 45 international service members this year, most of them Americans. There were at least 12 such attacks in August alone, resulting in 15 deaths. . . .

"We have introduced and will continue to introduce a broad range of measures to prevent such attacks, because these attacks threaten to undermine trust and confidence between foreign troops and Afghan security forces," Fogh Rasmussen said. "We’ll do everything it takes to prevent such attacks."  (photo: NATO)