Afghan army needs more time

Afghanistan needs at least four years to build up its capacity to shoulder its full-wing defense responsibility, although the US is planning to withdraw its marines from the war-torn country, according to the Afghan defense ministry.

Asked whether the Afghan National Army is able to shoulder the security responsibilities next summer, Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesperson for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said in an exclusive interview with the Global Times that the Afghan army still needs at least four years to build up its muscle and maybe even longer.

US President Barack Obama announced December 1 that the US would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and start its withdrawal from July 2011.

"You can judge from what the other top US officials have claimed," Azimi said. "Capacity building of the Afghan army is a crucial element to decide when the American forces will withdraw."

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said any troop pullout beginning in July 2011 would be slow and that the Americans would only then be starting to transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces.

British Army General David Richard also said the military would stay to provide training and support for Afghan troops in the "next five years," according to The Times.

Azimi revealed that Afghanistan is focusing on Air Force building at the present stage. "We have now 75 qualified pilots and more than 500 are receiving training from NATO," he said. "At the same time, the Afghan Air Force will receive 20 C-27 military transportation aircraft before August 2012."
"The 13-day Operation Mushtarak is a test of the Afghan National Army's ability," Azimi said. "The first group of airborne soldiers entering into Marjah is from our troops.

"Our soldiers performed very bravely during the fighting, with only three dead and 15 wounded."

The US-led International Security Assistance Forces, together with Afghan government troops, launched Operation Mushtarak against the Taliban strongholds in Helmand on February 13.

At least 12 service members of the NATO force, including eight Americans, have been killed during the campaign, according to The New York Times.

However, Operation Mushtarak is just the "prolusion" of a much larger and comprehensive operation codenamed Homid (Hope), which is designed to last 18 months and strike Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, Azimi told the Global Times.

"Kandahar is only a part of the coalition forces' next major offensive," Azimi said, but he declined to give the exact date for the launch of the battle and which provinces are included in the following offensive because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The battle for Kandahar, the second-largest city in Afghanistan and the homebase of the Taliban movement, still needs several weeks to prepare before clearing Marjah and surrounding areas, according to US.