Commander says 300 more trainers needed

[unhappycamper]

Commander says 300 more trainers needed
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, February 9, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — About 300 more police trainers are needed in western Afghanistan, the commander in charge of training security forces there said Friday.

Army Col. Jim Klingaman said he could use a 16-man training team for each district in the four provinces in his area of responsibility.

Each province has about a dozen districts. Right now, he has one training team per province, a training team for the Herat region, a team for the border police and a team dedicated to one district, he told reporters at a news conference.

Lack of police trainers has been a longstanding problem in Afghanistan, where a request from commanders last year about for 3,400 extra trainers — mostly for police — remains largely unfilled.

President Bush recently authorized sending 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan, of which about 1,000 would serve as trainers. The rest will bolster coalition forces in southern Afghanistan.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52314