Afghan govt, US military agree on new militia force

KABUL: US military commanders and Afghan officials have agreed to form a new militia force to counter an insurgency flaring across the south and east of the country, the Afghan Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

The new Afghan Guard Force will consist of about 2,000 men recruited from militia units across the country and will be based in Kabul, ministry spokesman Gen Zahir Azimi said. “If they are needed in any place to suppress terrorism, we will send them,” Azimi told a news conference. The American military has been pressing for the guard force to fight alongside 15,000 mainly US troops against Taliban-led insurgents, Al Qaeda holdouts and fighters of former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. —AP

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