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Afghanistan Sets 4-Month Deadline for Security Firms

VOA News 16 August 2010

A spokesman says Afghan President Hamid Karzai is giving private security firms four months to cease operations in the country.

The spokesman, Waheed Omar told reporters that Mr. Karzai planned to issue the deadline later on Monday.

More than 50 international and Afghan security firms operate in Afghanistan, employing at least 30,000 people.

President Karzai has said the companies undermine the work of Afghan security forces by creating a parallel security structure.

Officials say greater regulation of private security firms would not solve the problem posed by "the way they function" in Afghanistan.

NATO officials say dissolving the companies will be possible once the Afghan army and police are capable of providing the security that private companies currently offer, including protecting officials, troops and supply convoys.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters the U.S. and Afghan governments share a common objective in eliminating the need for private security companies, but that security challenges must be taken into account while trying to achieve the goal. He says the Pentagon will work with the Afghan government to improve oversight and management of private security groups.

NATO said Monday that an al-Qaida operative was among two insurgents killed in an air strike in the northern province of Kunduz. The alliance said Abu Baqir, a Taliban sub-commander and al-Qaida group leader, was killed while carrying out an attack on a police post in Aliabad on Sunday.

Elsewhere in Kunduz, NATO says a roadside bomb killed an Afghan child and wounded three others Monday in the Qal'ah-ye Zal district.

In the west, NATO says insurgents shot and killed a government official and a police officer in the Gulistan district of Farah province on Monday.

Afghan officials said Monday that police have seized nearly 17 tons of ammonium nitrate, a key component of roadside bombs, in southern Kandahar province.

In eastern Kunar province, NATO says it is investigating the cause of a drone crash Monday in Khas Kunar district.