A four-party commission, composed of senior commanders from
Afghanistan, Pakistan, coalition forces and ISAF, held a meeting in
Kabul on Wednesday to promote cooperation in fighting terrorism in
this insurgent country.
The delegates included Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat, vice chief of
Army Staff of Pakistan, Gen. Bismullah Khan Mohammedi, chief of
staff of the Afghan National Army, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, top
commander of the US-led coalition forces, and Lt. Gen. David
Richards, top commander of the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF), coalition forces said in a statement.
The meeting, which is the 18th of the kind, consisted of several
briefings to update the participants on issues of mutual
interest.
The Border Security Subcommittee elaborated how to better
coordinate security operations along the border area between
southern, eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Afghan and Pakistani militaries have improved their ability to
conduct operations against their common enemy through better
communication by using a geo-spatial database and high frequency
radios, provided by the United States.
The delegates also agreed to a proposal to conduct coordinated
patrols by the Afghan army, Pakistani troops, as well as coalition
forces and ISAF based in Afghanistan on their respective sides of
the border.
The Military Intelligence-Sharing Working Group discussed the
use of secure mobile telephones for intelligence coordination
between the troops of the four sides.
Coalition forces' Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (IED)
Working Group reviewed the progress on developing a common database
to aid the fight against IEDs.
Meanwhile, ISAF representatives briefed their plan for its
expansion into eastern Afghanistan late this year.
The four-party commission will meet again in October in
Afghanistan.
ISAF, which has about 21,000 troops, now takes charge of
security in northern, western, central and southern Afghanistan,
while coalition troops are mainly deployed in eastern Afghanistan
to hunt down militants there.
ISAF air raid killed 11 Taliban insurgents in the neighboring
Kandahar province on Tuesday night.
Afghanistan is suffering from a rise of Taliban-linked terrorism
and violence this year, during which over 1,800 people, mostly
Taliban insurgents, have been killed.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2006)
