Skip to content Skip to footer
|

Gates Urges Afghans to Take More Security Responsibilities

Kabul, Afghanistan – Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Saturday and said that Afghan security forces must take more responsibilities for a successful transition from U.S.-led NATO forces starting in July. “For the upcoming transition to be successful, the Afghan government and security forces must be willing to step up and take more security responsibility for governing and defending their own territory,” Gates said while talking with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Saturday and said that Afghan security forces must take more responsibilities for a successful transition from U.S.-led NATO forces starting in July.

“For the upcoming transition to be successful, the Afghan government and security forces must be willing to step up and take more security responsibility for governing and defending their own territory,” Gates said while talking with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The security transition is scheduled to begin in scattered locations across Afghanistan in July to pave the way toward a complete withdrawal of NATO troops by the end of 2014. Afghans will take over security in the cities of Kabul, Herat in the west, Lashkargah, the provincial capital of the restive province of Helmand, and Mehterlam, in the center of Laghman province. They will do the same for the provinces of Kabul, Panjshir and Bamiyan.

Violence has increased across Afghanistan, as the Taliban have stepped up attacks against Afghan and NATO troops. The Taliban militants launched their spring offensive last month and have succeeded in killing several key provincial security officials to sabotage the transition process.

There are fears that the early withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan will jeopardize the fragile security gains achieved in the last two years.

“The international coalition wants to be a strong partner in this effort, but ultimately it is up to the Afghan people and elected government to chart Afghanistan's destiny,” Gates said. This is his twelfth and last visit to Afghanistan.

He is leaving his post later this month. President Barack Obama has nominated CIA Director Leon Panetta to replace him; the Senate has yet to confirm Panetta.

“While U.S. and coalition partners may draw down our military forces over time, we are committed to a long-term strategic partnership with Afghanistan,” Gates said, adding that America will continue to train, equip and support the Afghan security forces.

Karzai once again emphasized that bombing of Afghan houses and night raids by NATO troops must end.

Also on Saturday, four U.S.-led NATO soldiers were killed in eastern Afghanistan, a statement issued from NATO headquarters said. It provided no details.

In a separate incident, a female suicide attacker targeted a coalition convoy in the restive eastern province of Kunar, killing one interpreter and injuring another.

“The suicide attack happened in Marawara district of Kunar province, around noon time, killing one interpreter and injuring another one,” Fazlullah Wahidi, the provincial governor, told McClatchy in a telephone interview.

Kunar is a remote province in east Afghanistan, which shares a long border with the lawless tribal area of neighboring Pakistan, which is believed to be a safe haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida.

According to Wahidi, the attacker was a woman, as she was wearing a burqa, and male security forces do not search females because of cultural norms.

“We do not have female police in this province; it is a big problem,” Wahidi said.

(Hashim Shukoor is a McClatchy special correspondent.)

© 2011 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Truthout has licensed this content. It may not be reproduced by any other source and is not covered by our Creative Commons license.

Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.

We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.

Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”

Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.

It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.

As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.