The Afghan army should have nearly doubled to 134,000 soldiers in four years and is already taking on a large part of the fight against insurgents, the US commander in charge of training said Thursday.
The government and its international partners formally agreed in Kabul on Wednesday to enlarge the army, now at about 80,000 soldiers, so it can better deal with the threat from a growing Taliban-led insurgency.
“The Afghans want to accelerate this as quickly as possible,” Brigadier-General Robert Cone, US commander for training the Afghan security forces, told AFP at a ceremony to mark the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
