Afghanistan is to launch an ambitious drive to improve security for elections by demobilising nearly 40,000 soldiers loyal to regional powerbrokers by June, the government said on Friday.
President Hamid Karzai will sign a decree soon formalising a decision reached by the National Security Council to demobilise the 40,000, or about 40 percent of such forces, Deputy Defence Minster Abdul Rahim Wardak said on state television.
The plan would cover the decommissioning of 16 militia divisions, 13 brigades, 17 regiments and 12 battalions and the reduction in size of seven divisions, nine brigades and four regiments, he said.
Wardak said the first phase would involve the demobilisation of 39,141 soldiers. "We will start this as soon as possible," he said.
A government official, who did not want to be identified, said all regional powerbrokers with private military forces would be affected.