The Associated Press
06/03/2007
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CAMP MOREHEAD, Afghanistan - The head of the Afghan National Army said Monday his country is pushing the United States to accelerate training and equipping his army so the Afghans can fight the Taliban on their own.

Gen. Bismullah Khan, the army chief of staff, told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the goal of attaining independence on the battlefield is essential.

"We don't have air support," he said through an interpreter, expressing frustration at the lack of an Afghan air force. "That is a very serious problem. We are looking forward to the day when we can fight the enemy independently."

He was asked how soon the army could reach that goal.

"We asked for it to be as soon as possible," he said. "I will ask the secretary of defense to expedite the process so we can do this. The only way to defeat the enemy is to become independent."

He mentioned that the United States has committed, with the help of allies, to building an Afghan national army of 70,000 soldiers by the end of next year.

"But it's not going to be enough," he said. "We'll ask for more."

Gates, making his second visit to Afghanistan as defense secretary, came to this training camp some five miles southwest of Kabul to confer with U.S. and Afghan commanders training Afghan special forces.

Gates told reporters on Sunday that despite a rise in insurgent violence this spring, he remains convinced American and NATO forces are making steady progress against the Taliban.

"I think actually things are slowly, cautiously headed in the right direction," Gates said. "I'm concerned to keep it moving that way."

He spoke during a flight to Kabul, the Afghan capital, from Singapore where he attended a security conference. The Pentagon chief had urged Asian nations to provide more troops or other forms of support for Afghanistan.

For months, Gates has expressed concern about possible reversals in Afghanistan, which still lacks a self-sustaining military and suffers from the unmet expectations of building an effective central government.

In the interview Sunday, Gates appeared more optimistic, though still skeptical, about maintaining momentum against the Taliban and overcoming the economic and political obstacles that have bedeviled Afghanistan for decades.

On his first trip, in January, he worried about Taliban incursions from havens inside neighboring Pakistan and said it appeared the Taliban were gearing up for a spring offensive.

Since then, levels of violence in Afghanistan have risen but the Taliban offensive has gained little of a foothold.

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