KABUL, July 26, (Agencies): NATO’s military force in Afghanistan has condemned cross-border shelling from Pakistan, after Kabul warned that it could significantly harm relations between the strife-torn neighbours.

Afghanistan’s warning came on Sunday after officials said more than 300 heavy artillery shells and rockets were fired from Pakistan into Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province over two days, killing at least four people.

Last month, a barrage of cross-border fire from Pakistan into Kunar forced thousands of villagers to flee their homes after Islamabad accused Kabul of protecting militants who infiltrated to kill 13 Pakistani soldiers.

Afghanistan and Pakistan typically blame each other for violence by Taleban Islamic militants plaguing both sides of their border, known as the Durand Line.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force “condemns the indirect fire attacks from across the Durand Line”, ISAF said in a statement late Wednesday.  “We continue to work with the Afghan ministry of defence, and the Pakistan government to ensure an end of these attacks.”

ISAF welcomed the announcement by the Afghan foreign ministry that talks on the issue would be held soon between officials from both sides in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad. Pakistan on Sunday denied Afghanistan’s charge of cross-border shelling, calling it “incorrect.” “Pakistani troops only respond to and engage militants from where they are attacked/fired upon,” said a senior military official in Islamabad.

Over the last year he said at least 15 cross-border attacks were carried out by militants against Pakistani check points and the civilian populations in northwestern towns of Dir and Chitral.

NATO has some 130,000 US-led troops in Afghanistan helping the government of President Hamid Karzai fight Taleban Islamist insurgents.

Military officials say an Army private from South Carolina has been killed in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that 19-year-old Pfc. Adam C. Ross of Lyman died July 24 in Wardak province of wounds suffered when he encountered small arms fire.

Ross was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy.

The Pentagon’s decision to change the standards used to grade the success of Afghan police and soldiers, who are a centerpiece of US strategy for smoothly exiting the war in Afghanistan, helped it present a positive picture of those forces’ abilities, a US government watchdog reported on Tuesday.
“These changes ... were responsible, in part, for its reported increase in April 2012 of the number of ANSF units rated at the highest level,” the Government Accountability Office said in a new report on Afghan national security forces, known as ANSF.

In a twice-annual report to Congress in April 2012, the Defense Department reported that Afghan police and soldiers “continued to make substantial progress,” classifying 15 out of 219 army units as able to operate ‘independently with assistance’ from foreign advisors. Almost 40 out of 435 police units got the same rating.

The United States and its NATO allies have poured years of effort and billions of dollars into building up Afghanistan’s police and army, which are taking over security as foreign forces prepare to withdraw most troops by the end of 2014.

While Afghan forces are far larger and better trained than they once were, they remain hobbled by problems including inadequate literacy and weak intelligence and logistics capability.

“Key definitions used in capability assessments ... have changed several times,” the GAO said. Its report said the Pentagon’s highest rating for Afghan forces had changed from ‘independent’ in early 2011 to ‘independent with advisors’ later that year.