Pentagon chief warned over Afghan army problems

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Source: Sydney Morning Herald

NATO commanders on Wednesday warned US Defence Secretary Robert Gates of the challenges involved in recruiting Afghan soldiers and police, which the US military hopes will number 287,000 by July 2011.

Gates had spent two days in Afghanistan discussing the implementation of a sweeping new US war strategy set to deploy an extra 30,000 troops to battle the Taliban, with the goal of starting to withdraw US forces in July 2011.

The number two commander on the ground, Lieutenant General David Rodriguez, said the new troops "will increase our capacity" to train Afghan forces -- the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's plans to bring troops home.

"With the additional forces... we can and will be successful," he said.

In this vast, rural country with an estimated population of between 26 and 30 million, a senior NATO commander has put the number of police at 68,000 and said that out of 94,000 soldiers trained so far, 10,000 have defected.

The target now is to recruit 287,000 Afghan police and soldiers by July 2011 and just under 300,000 by the end of fiscal year 2011, Rodriguez said. Related article: US general confident on surge

But Lieutenant General William Caldwell, in charge of NATO training of Afghan forces, emphasised the challenges involved in reaching an initial objective of 134,000 local forces by October 2010.

"The biggest challenge is, how do we develop leaders for the Afghan army and the Afghan police. It's a huge challenge," he said.

"Leader development doesn't happen overnight. That takes time."

"How do we recruit more, retain more and reduce the attrition?" he added.

Rodriguez said recruiting and retaining personnel was particularly difficult in the south, the spiritual capital of the Taliban and scene of the heaviest fighting in the eight-year war.

"They are getting in tough fights all the time down there," he said. "Where it's hard we can't recruit and we can't retain" Afghan forces.

To attract more Afghans into the security forces, the government last month increased salaries for police and soldiers by at least 33 percent, although the Taliban can still pay up to 100 US dollars more per head.

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