Afghan border patrol facing more training courses

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An Afghan border policeman washes his hands during a patrol with U.S. troops near the Khyber Pass in September. U.S. commanders hope an effort to retrain the Border Police will see the force ready to take on a larger role by late summer.


Afghan border patrol facing more training courses
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, January 26, 2009

KHOST, Afghanistan — The U.S. military has launched a major overhaul in the training of Afghan Border Police, a move that mirrors larger changes in the way U.S. and Afghan units will interact in the coming year.

The effort, coming amid continued violence along Afghanistan’s rugged 1,200-mile boundary with Pakistan, will increase joint operations and see large U.S. combat units take a more active role in training Afghan units, officials say.

The military has primarily relied on small teams of embedded advisers to train Afghan security forces, but those teams have been in short supply, especially for the border police and Afghan National Police. The embedded teams will remain, but with the ranks of both Afghan and U.S. forces expected to grow here considerably in the next year, officials are moving toward larger-scale efforts.

“We can expect a greater focus on partnering efforts in the future across the board, from ISAF partnering with ANA Corps, to incoming brigades partnering with police districts,” said Lt. Col. Christian Kubik, a spokesman for the U.S. command that oversees training efforts in Afghanistan.

Already, Task Force Currahee, an American-led combat brigade in east-central Afghanistan, has begun the process of assigning each of its battalions to work with a battalion of border police. Joint operations are expected to begin this winter.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60253