U.S. Report Cites Progress in Afghan Security Forces

01 May 2012

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in July 2011. (AP images)

Progress is being made in transitioning control of security in Afghanistan to Afghan national security forces, as progress has also been made with a strategic partnership agreement between U.S. and Afghan leaders, senior U.S. officials reported May 1.

During a background briefing at the Pentagon, senior officials from the departments of State and Defense told journalists that efforts to shift security responsibilities from U.S. forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the Afghan National Army and police continue “to improve, not just in numbers but also in quality.”

“The overall trend is very positive,” a Defense official said. Afghan security forces are more and more able to take the lead and they are being put into areas that have been transitioned, and are being transitioned to other areas based on their ability to carry out those security missions.

The relationship of the ISAF forces to Afghan forces is increasingly becoming one of advisory and training assistance, he said.  The long-term goal is to transfer full security responsibility for Afghanistan to Afghan control by the end of 2014 with fully functional national and local governments.

But challenges remain, and the most important is sanctuaries along the mountainous passes between Afghanistan and Pakistan that are being used clandestinely by Taliban insurgents to refit, regroup and rearm their forces, he said. Another he cited is the “slowness of the development of civil governance, where there’s of course many challenges and a lot of work being done, a lot of progress being made.”

The senior Defense official noted that on the Pakistan side of the border, the “Pakistani military are fighting and dying every day. They are conducting some very difficult military operations” against the Taliban and other insurgents.

The senior State Department official said a significant step was taken recently when U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker and Rangin Dadfar Spanta, chief of the Afghan National Security Council, initialed the Strategic Partnership Agreement.  The agreement provides long-term political support for Afghanistan and shows to Afghans, its neighbors and the Taliban insurgents that Afghanistan will not be abandoned by the United States.

President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were expected to sign the 10-page strategic partnership agreement pledging U.S. support for Afghanistan for a decade after 2014, when NATO forces are planning to conclude their combat role. The signing ceremony with the two presidents paints a tableau of solidarity for an Afghan-U.S. relationship.

In addition, the Tokyo ministerial conference to provide economic assistance for Afghanistan is coming up and will include partners, allies and the international donor community, “who intend to continue to work in Afghanistan and who will pledge their economic support to economic growth for the 10 years of the transformation decade” defined at the December 5, 2011, International Conference on Afghanistan held in Bonn.

The Afghan national security forces have grown to 345,000 from about 285,000 army and police personnel a year ago, according to the Afghanistan security report being sent to Congress. The report is required every six months to measure progress in achieving goals to strengthen Afghanistan and support the transition to Afghan-led security. By the end of March 2012, the report noted, the Afghan National Army had 13 brigades and the Afghan National Police had 39 units that were categorized as independent with advisers.

“Based on what I’ve seen over the 10-plus years I’ve been working on Afghanistan, I am optimistic that we are going to achieve our campaign goals and be able to turn the security over to the Afghan security forces by the end of 2014 and that they will succeed,” the senior Defense official told journalists.