President Hamid Karzai's announcement that Afghan forces will take charge of security from coalition troops in seven towns and regions met with a mixed response Tuesday. While some analysts called the decision symbolic and premature, residents welcomed the move.
Most of the places on the list that Karzai read out to army graduates at the military academy in Kabul on Tuesday are considered among the safest in Afghanistan. They include Bamiyan and Panjshir provinces in central Afghanistan, where Afghan forces have been virtually in control of security since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Also named were the provincial capitals of Herat in the west and Mazar-e-Sharif in the north, which have suffered only minimally from the Taliban-led insurgency that has plagued other regions. More challenging for Afghan forces could be Kabul province and Metarlam, capital of Laghman province in the east, where insecurity is said to be growing.
Afghan forces have been in complete control of Kabul since late 2008, but will expand their radius to surrounding areas, excluding Surobi, a restive part to the east of the capital. Afghan officials said this first phase of the security handover would be a chance to assess the situation and make improvements before taking responsibility for more volatile areas.
But analysts had their doubts about the move, which starts from July. "For me it is a symbolic move," said Noorul Haq Olomi, a former member of parliament and an army commander during the communist- backed regime of the 1980s. "You know symbolic moves are not effective and they won't achieve any goals." Olomi called the decision hasty, arguing that Afghan forces lacked the capability, equipment and weapons to carry out operations independently.
International donors have agreed to an expansion of the Afghan security forces to 307,000 by October from their current level of 152,000 soldiers and 118,000 police officers. Afghans are expected to take overall security responsibility for the country in late 2014, but Olomi said that little has been done to improve intelligence gathering or surveillance to fend off "terrorist attacks when they are being plotted."
"We would be able to take control of some areas, some big cities and try to maintain the kind of security that exists now," he said. "But we need a fully equipped air force that could support our ground troops and for our ground forces we need tanks, cannon and other heavy artillery."
Echoing Olomi's concerns, Abdul Hadi Khalid, deputy interior minister until last year, said the security forces would not be able to operate independently unless their leadership was reformed and the government is cleansed of "corrupt people". The Taliban also denounced Karzai's decision, calling it "symbolic" and saying it was "meant to deceive the people." Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the problems would continue unless "the invasion of the foreigners ends."
But the announcement was welcomed by war-weary residents in Kabul. "Of course Afghans can take care of their own security. They (foreign forces) should only provide equipment for us because no one can fight with empty hands," said Sayed Baqir, a 31-year-old shopkeeper.
Naseer Ahmad, 26, a university student agreed, saying "No country should ever rely on another for support and security. We should become self-sufficient and we should not be a burden to others." The seventh place to be handed over to Afghans - Lashkargah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand - is seen as key test. Helmand is a hub of Taliban insurgency and has seen intensified operations by Nato in recent months, following a surge of US troops last year, when they military claimed "fragile and reversible gains".
Last week, the Taliban forced phone companies to switch off mobile services across Helmand from 5 pm to 6 am every day. Speaking by phone from Lashkargah, resident Sefatullah Zahidi welcomed Tuesday's announcement, but expressed concerns about the ability of local forces to provide security independently. "The Taliban militants will capture the city in no time if we don't have an air force to stop them," he warned.
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