NATO commander: Alliance is working to reduce attrition in Afghanistan’s security forces.

NATO working to cut attrition in Afghan forces

BRUSSELS — The high attrition rate that has hampered efforts to enlarge the Afghan army and police will start dropping soon, the U.S. general in charge of training the government forces predicted Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell said the police are losing a quarter of their manpower annually, and the army reports losses of 18 percent.

“We’ve actually been getting better since last December, when we introduced parity in salaries between the police and army, and both forces were given a pay rise,” Caldwell said.

The Afghan government’s security forces have been plagued by sky-high attrition rates ever since they were formed in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime in 2001. Low salaries and poor morale contributed to a 40 percent desertion rate at the time, with many soldiers and policemen defecting with their weapons and joining the rebels.

But since the top U.S. and NATO commander in the country, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, last year made government force enlargement a top priority and a key element in the allied exit strategy, retaining trained soldier and police has become a primary focus.

McChrystal wants to enable the Afghan government’s security forces to gradually take over from international troops responsibility for fighting the Taliban insurgents.

Plans call for Afghanistan’s military to expand to over 170,000 soldiers by October 2011, up from 98,000. Police numbers will grow to 134,000 from over 90,000 today.

Within five years, the Afghan security force should reach 240,000 soldiers and the police 160,000.

Caldwell, whose training command was set up at the end of last year as a separate element in the allied command, told reporters that he has already received half of the foreign instructors he needs.

Trainers account for 2 percent of more than 100,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, he said. Allied nations have pledged nearly 500 new instructors, but another 700 will be needed to fulfill requirements.

Caldwell was in Brussels to brief the North Atlantic Council — NATO’s highest political grouping — on the training strategy.