General: Afghanistan needs more troops, money; Development of police 'several years behind' Afghan Army

Above: Afghan National Auxiliary Police recruits drill in shooting their AK-47 rifles with live ammunition last month.

While some Afghanistan districts remain “problematic,” all 34 of its provinces are under Afghan, U.S. or NATO control, the U.S. general who heads the NATO security effort there said today.

That said, the situation in Afghanistan cannot continue to improve without a stronger international commitment of troops and money, a stronger national police force, destruction of the country’s vast opium poppy fields and a unified reconstruction effort, said Army Gen. Dan McNeill, commander of the 36,000-strong International Security Assistance Force...

The Ministry of Interior, which controls the national police, also needs help and is “several years behind” the Defense Ministry, he said. And in countries with a counterinsurgency doctrine, he said, the indigenous police force is the force of choice.

A separate 12,000-member U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom force continues counterterrorist work in Afghanistan, but the NATO force also sometimes conducts offensive operations against the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban in support of security operations.

Read the rest at Marine Corps Times

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