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Afghan force boost as militants attempt prison break

By Channel 4 News

Updated on 21 January 2010

As the Afghanistan government announces plans to boost security forces by 100,000 Nima Elbagir finds that insecurity grows amid Taliban attacks on the Afghan border.

Afghan National Army soldiers (Getty)

The Afghan government and its international partners have announced plans today for an 100,000 increase in numbers for the country's security forces over the next two years. 

The panel are hoping to achieve an army of more than 170,000 and a police force of 134,000.

A long-term goal of expanding the Afghan security force to 240,000 soldiers and 160,000 police within five years has also been set.

But officials said the figures may not be necessary if the US-led campaign succeeds in crippling the Taliban insurgency, Associated Press News reported.

A key conference on Afghanistan is due to be held in London next week, attended by Prime Minster Gordon Brown and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The conference is expected to focus on the strategy against the Taliban in order to "drive forward the campaign" and improve international support.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Pakistan today hoping to deepen US ties with the country and persuade a sceptical nation that Washington aims to be an ally "for the long-haul".

Earlier Gates said that making a distinction between Pakistani Taliban and their Afghan allies is counterproductive and urged pressure on Taliban havens on both sides of the border.

Islamabad has mounted big offensives against Pakistani Taliban factions that are attacking the state but has resisted US pressure to attack Afghan Taliban in border enclaves.

With persistent attacks from the Pakistani Taliban the state says it cannot open too many fronts at the same time.

"If history is any indication, safe havens for either Taliban on either side of the border will in the long-run lead to more lethal and more brazen attacks in both nations," Gates said in a Pakistan newspaper.

Afghan burkha prison break
In Afghanistan there were tense scenes in Jalalabad yesterday after authorities thwarted an attempted prison break out by militants.

Prison officers told Channel 4 News on Wednesday that the four men had managed to smuggle in burkhas in an attempt to walk out during visiting time.

Female prison officers on duty raised the alarm after insisting the men submit to a body search before leaving the prison parameter.

The Nangarhar state prison in Jalalabad holds over a thousand prisoners and until recently the majority of inmates here were being held on charges mainly relating to opium smuggling.

But with Nangarhar's position on the border with Pakistan and the coalition forces heavy reliance on the Kabul, Jalalabad Road, the highway connecting Pakistan to the Afghan capital, seems to be changing that.

Just a day before the burkha breakout attempt, militants had launched an ambush on the highway, attacking a convoy of oil tankers transporting fuel to the international troops.

No one was injured but eight of the tankers were hit. The Taliban website calls the attacks "economic hits" and crows about their increasing frequency.

One Afghan civilian caught in the attack told Channel 4 News, "We now factor the ambushes into our journey time."

The Taliban know this highway is the main ground supply route for Nato forces and how it looks to Afghan civilians when the foreign troops cannot even protect such a crucial road.

Insecurity grows ahead of conference
The spread of insecurity to previously secured zones is happening across the country.

In the western province of Herat a district governor and five police officers were killed in a Taliban ambush last week. A few days previously rockets had been launched at the Five Star Hotel in Herat City.

The hotel is the proposed site for a new American Consulate in the country's west. The incidents are a stark reversal of the trend over the last year for a decrease in insecurity along Afghanistan's border.

This rising tide of insecurity reached the capital itself a few days ago. As Afghan President Hamid Karzai swore in the new members of his cabinet the Taliban breached the inner periphery of his government's "secured zone".
Gunshots could be heard in the footage of the ceremony, broadcast on national television.

Karzai's only acknowledgement of the battle raging outside: "Afghanistan has seen worse then this."

But Kabul in the eight years since the fall of the Taliban has not, the attack was brazen and wide reaching. And most importantly hints at a high level of infiltration.

For Karzai politically this comes at a very bad time. The cabinet he was inaugurating were at best his second or third choices after suffering the humiliation of Parliament rejecting 17 of his initial 24 nominees and then rejecting a further ten of the new ones.

The upcoming London conference on Afghanistan next week is expected to focus heavily on reconciliation through the reintegration of former Taliban fighters.

A treasure chest said to reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars is being put together by international donors, the best hope for an Afghan solution and a withdrawal from this increasingly unpopular front.

But in the light of this week's events the question for many here has become; how can you persuade people to defect when your man is no longer looking like such a safe bet?

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