US military 'planning to arm local militias to fight Taliban'

[Naveed Yaseen]

WASHINGTON (December 25 2008): US military commanders are planning to arm local militias to combat Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The first such "local defence forces" would begin operating early next year in Wardak Province close to Kabul, an area where the resurgent Taliban had largely assumed control.

Similar militias would be quickly established nation-wide if the move proved successful, the newspaper quoted unnamed senior US and Afghan officials as saying. Such militias would be similar to those formed in Iraq, where Sunni fighters on the government payroll and operating as the "Awakening Councils" had helped greatly to reduce violence.

The newspaper report said, however, that there was "deep unease" among many Afghans that Pashtun-dominated militias could get out of control, terrorise local populations and turn against the government.

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