Afghanistan prepares for troops’ exit in 2014

— Afghan forces are preparing to take the lead in safeguarding more parts of the country in line with plans to assume full responsibility for security when most foreign troops withdraw by the end of 2014, President Hamid Karzai’s government announced Monday.

The next phase of the handover of security duties from NATO-led troops to Afghan soldiers and police will begin in two months and will give the national forces primary responsibility for defending 87 percent of the population, said Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who heads a transition commission set up by the government.

Speaking at a news conference, he dismissed concerns about the readiness of Afghan troops to take on the lead combat role against the Taliban-led insurgency.

“When the enemies of Afghanistan have attacked the Afghan national security forces, they have been defeated,” Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi said at the briefing.

Most of the districts that will be included in the next phase of the transition are located in the north and interior of Afghanistan, with one district in the restive southern province of Helmand. When the handovers are completed at an unspecified date, Afghan security forces will be responsible for 23 of the country’s 34 provinces.

By next summer, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force expects the Afghans to take responsibility for the entire nation, with U.S. and international troops mainly in a support role.

But the challenges were evident from a Pentagon report released in December that said only one of the Afghan army’s 23 brigades can operate without international air, logistics and other support.

The U.S. and its allies plan to maintain troops in Afghanistan after 2014 to train, advise and assist the national security forces, but the size of that force is still under discussion.

With the additional responsibility taken on by Afghan forces has come a heavier toll. More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers died in 2012, substantially higher than the year before, Afghan defense officials said Sunday. There are now 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

In other developments, Pakistan released eight members of the Afghan Taliban from prison Monday, including the former justice minister under the Taliban, in a bid to boost the peace process in neighboring Afghanistan, the government said.

Pakistan is seen as a linchpin in efforts to bring about peace in Afghanistan as foreign troops plan to depart the country in 2014. Kabul has been pressing its neighbor to release more prisoners who they hope would bring the Taliban to the negotiating table before the U.S. troops go home.

“We have released some more Taliban prisoners today as our help in the peace process in Afghanistan,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan said.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said eight detainees were released, including Nooruddin Turabi, the justice minister under the Taliban.

Mohammad Azeem, a former guard of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was also among those released, according to a Taliban official. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters about the sensitive subject.

It was not clear what role the eight released prisoners might play in bringing Taliban leaders to the negotiating table or what links they have to the group’s current leadership.

Information for this article was contributed by Alexandra Zavis of the Los Angeles Times and by Zarar Khan, Kathy Gannon, Rebecca Santana, Rasool Dawar and staff members of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 01/01/2013

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