Friendly Fire The U.S. has been attacked by the Taliban in the past. The first major attack took place on April 14, 2011, in Khost, Afghanistan, when insurgents stormed a housing complex where CIA officers were based, killing seven people, including two agency operatives. Five days later, a CIA contractor shot and killed two men he said were firing rockets at the agency's Afghanistan base. U.S. officials have confirmed that U.S. Navy SEALs were close to capturing bin Laden in 2011, but the al-Qaida leader's fate was left to a Pakistani ally. Officials have said the country's intelligence agency then let him slip away and he was killed in a U.S. raid. The Pakistanis have said they found the SEALs responsible for the raid and killed them, a claim that has not been verified by the U.S. President Donald Trump has often criticized Pakistan for allowing Islamic militants to run terror operations from its territory. The U.S. also has blamed Pakistan for harboring terror groups who target Americans. "Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with the United States," a U.S. official told NBC News. "Instead, Pakistan has chosen to harbor criminals and terrorists." Last month, Trump said he didn't know if Pakistan or Afghanistan is "less safe" for American troops since he ordered the troop increase there in 2017. Trump took to Twitter, writing, "There is no discussion even on the (negotiating) table, but Pakistan is probably not a safe ally." Fox News first reported the U.S. troop increase in November. Officials in Afghanistan have welcomed the additional troops and have praised the work done by the U.S. military, saying the troops are better trained and are taking better care of Afghan civilians than previous efforts. But the increasing number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan is an issue for the U.S. — as well as the Afghan government — because of the potential for negative press and public backlash in the United States. Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, told Congress last month that civilian casualties caused by American forces had increased. The number of civilians killed by coalition forces in the first nine months of 2018 was more than that caused by Taliban attacks and other militant groups, he said. The new report said the number of civilians killed by the Taliban and other militant groups is rising at a faster rate than previously thought. In the past, most of the civilian casualties were caused by coalition airstrikes and support from other international forces. In the first 10 months of 2018, the U.S. military-led coalition is responsible for about 27 percent of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The report said most of the civilian deaths from the Taliban and other militants are happening in remote parts of the country, far from international forces' bases. The report also found that the Taliban, who were ousted by U.S. troops and the Afghan army in the early 2000s, were responsible for 35 percent of civilian casualties in 2017. There are now more than 16,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan. In March, President Trump's administration said he had decided to keep about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan, with a possible 2,500 more in training, support and counterterrorism missions. The U.S. already has approximately 17,000 military personnel in Afghanistan. NATO said in March it was expanding its support to Afghanistan's military and police forces from next year. The U.S. plans to keep up to 10,000 troops there after 2020 as part of its strategy to continue training the Afghan forces. In October, Trump said he'd consider sending U.S. troops back to Afghanistan if the threat from the Taliban and other militant groups continued to grow.