Tag Archives: sergeant-first

U.S. troops in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, were busy training Afghan police how to fire machineguns on Monday (April 26). A centrepiece of U.S. President Barack Obama's Afghanistan strategy is the training of Afghan security forces in order to facilitate the eventual withdrawal of NATO forces. Obama has said a U.S. troop withdrawal could begin from the middle of 2011, raising alarm bells among some in the Afghan political and military leadership, who fear being abandoned. “The purpose of training is that we want them… we have them lead all the missions. We want them to be able to shoot effectively and kill the enemy that attack,” Company Commander Sergeant First Class Jeremy Ellis said. Success depends on building capable and loyal Afghan forces, a difficult feat especially in the south, where many Afghan recruits quit due to poor pay and dangerous conditions. “There are lots of Taliban and drug smugglers in this area, they repeatedly attack our checkpoints, but we are using tactics that we have learned from these training sessions, we target the enemies and defeat them,” said Abdul Sattar Noorzai, commander of police quick reaction forces of Nahr-e-Saraj in Lashkar Gah. Obama announced last December he would be sending an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to try and turn the tide in the eight-year-war. Apart from combat troops, thousands of army trainers and enablers such as air crew will also be arriving in the country. added by: ctv