U.S. Special Forces train Afghans in own image, success could lead to troop withdrawals in region

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Afghan Commandos, under direction of U.S. troops, practice checkpoint training at Camp Morehead.


U.S. Special Forces train Afghans in own image, success could lead to troop withdrawals in region
BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Sunday, August 8th 2010, 4:00 AM

CAMP MOREHEAD, Afghanistan - When two U.S. sailors went missing during an SUV excursion from Kabul last month, elite troops here were given a key role in the search.

The special troops weren't American. They were Pashtun tribesmen from Afghanistan's new commando force.

"For four days, every six hours, there were aircraft here taking Special Operations Forces - both ours and Afghan - away from here," said a U.S. Green Beret major who commands this base south of Kabul.

It was a dramatic sign of the trust senior U.S. officers now place in the Afghan Commandos and the super-elite Afghan Special Forces.

Those units are a new but essential ingredient in the joint counterinsurgency strategy pushed by NATO's Afghanistan commander, Gen. David Petraeus, to bring the Taliban to heel.