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Afghanistan`s govt appoints new chief of intelligence
Kabul, Feb 05: The Afghan government appointed a new intelligence chief today, promoting a young insider from the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance to take charge of a key security post.
Kabul, Feb 05: The Afghan government appointed a new intelligence chief today, promoting a young insider from the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance to take charge of a key security post.
Amrullah Saleh, 32, already a senior official in the National Security Directorate, will move into the top job immediately, presidential spokesman
Hamed Elmi said.
His predecessor, Mohammad Arif Sarwary, will become a ministerial adviser, Elmi said, adding that the change was a routine personnel switch.
Both Saleh and Sarwary are ethnic Tajiks from the Northern Alliance, which ousted the hard-line Taliban from power in late 2001 with support of a US-led coalition.
Northern Alliance followers dominated key ministries in the interim government set up under President Hamid Karzai. But the UN has pressed for speedier reform of Afghanistan's security services in particular, to make them better reflect the country's ethnic balance. br>Saleh was head of foreign relations at the intelligence service before his promotion.
Bureau Report
His predecessor, Mohammad Arif Sarwary, will become a ministerial adviser, Elmi said, adding that the change was a routine personnel switch.
Both Saleh and Sarwary are ethnic Tajiks from the Northern Alliance, which ousted the hard-line Taliban from power in late 2001 with support of a US-led coalition.
Northern Alliance followers dominated key ministries in the interim government set up under President Hamid Karzai. But the UN has pressed for speedier reform of Afghanistan's security services in particular, to make them better reflect the country's ethnic balance. br>Saleh was head of foreign relations at the intelligence service before his promotion.
Bureau Report