Kabul: The second wave of transition from
NATO to local control in Afghanistan will include six
provinces, seven cities and dozens of districts, a statement
from President Hamid Karzai's office said on Sunday.
The announcement means that more than 50 per cent of
Afghanistan will soon be under the control of local forces and
officials, although the statement did not give a date for when
the second phase would begin.
The first phase of transition started in July, part of
a process which should see all foreign combat troops leave by
the end of 2014.
The provinces being handed over in their entirety in
the second phase are Balkh, Daikundi, Kabul, Takhar, Samangan
and Nimroz.
The cities being handed over are Jalalabad, Ghazni
city, Maydan Shahr, Faizabad, Chaghcharan, Shibirghan and
Qalay-I-Naw. Jalalabad is one of Afghanistan's main cities,
close to the border with Pakistan.
"With today's decision by the president, over half of
the country's population would now be covered by the
transition process," a statement from the president's office
said.
The second tranche of places which will be
transitioning is significantly larger than the first which was
heralded as a success by officials. But the process has not
been smooth, with insurgents continuing to bomb those areas
and staging high-profile attacks.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, November 27, 2011, 22:35