A series of recent rocket attacks to the South Korean military base in Afghanistan have prompted speculation that the attackers are collaborating with local resistance forces.

The chief of South Korea’s Ashena Unit, which has been dispatched to defend the South Korean Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Afghanistan, says that it is not known who attacked the South Korean base in the northern Afghan city of Charika. He said that he has received intelligence that a local Islamic faction, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), has joined forces with the Taliban and are attacking allied forces.

Kim said that HIG forces are present in nearby villages north of the base, and that some two-hundred people presumed to have ties with HIG staged violent protests outside the provincial government office in Parwan on April 18th.

Kim said, however, that Afghanistan has a wide variety of hostile forces including the Taliban and military cliques, and they are not necessarily picking out South Korean forces as targets.