Nato strikes kill Afghan police, civiliansKABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday ordered the process of disbanding all private security companies in the country to begin, his office said. The president has ordered that all private security contractors operating in Afghanistan should be disbanded by the end of the year, potentially causing a crisis for the many organisations that rely on them. “The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on Saturday tasked the ministry of internal affairs to formally begin the dissolution process of private security companies,” a statement from the presidential palace said. Over the next seven days, the Interior Ministry and the National Directorate of Security, the intelligence agency, will prepare a list of all registered private security companies, along with details of staffing, location and specialization, it said. This information will be presented to a similar high-level meeting next week, it said, adding that all companies would be treated equally. Unregistered firms will take priority in the disbanding process, it said. The presidential decree, issued on Tuesday, ordered the 52 private security contractors operating in the country, both Afghan and international, to cease operations by Jan. 1, 2011. Private security firms in Afghanistan are employed by US and NATO forces, the Pentagon, the UN mission, aid and non-governmental organisations, embassies and Western media. They employ about 26,000 registered personnel, though experts say the real number could be as high as 40,000. Afghans criticize them as overbearing and abusive, particularly on the country's roads, and Karzai has complained they duplicate the work of the Afghan security forces and divert much-needed resources. Meanwhile, air strikes by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan accidentally killed at least three Afghan police in the country's north and a woman and two children in the west, officials said. ISAF said Afghan security forces came under fire from insurgents in multiple locations in Jawzjan province on Friday and that the Afghan forces had requested air support. Two helicopters then fired a Hellfire missile and 30 mm rounds at the insurgents, it said. “During a subsequent battle-damage assessment, it was discovered three Afghan National Police were accidentally killed and several more wounded during the air weapons team engagement,” ISAF said in a statement. “International Security Assistance Force officials offer their sincere condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those fallen service members,” it said. Mohammad Rahimi, a district chief from Darz Aab in Jawzjan, said Afghan forces asked for NATO help when they were attacked by about 400 Taliban fighters. He said four police were killed, as well as at least 10 civilians caught in crossfire. “NATO's aircrafts bombed where our troops were without coordinating with us, killing four policemen and wounding 13 others,” he said. In western Farah province, Afghan and ISAF forces hunting a Taliban fighter followed a vehicle carrying several armed insurgents to a compound in a remote district. Six insurgents were killed in an ensuing gunbattle and an air strike was called in, which hit the vehicle they had been driving in. ISAF said the vehicle, which may have been full of home-made explosives, blew up and that a woman and two children were later found dead at the scene. Five civilians were killed by a roadside bomb, the insurgents' most effective weapon, in the north on Saturday, ISAF said.
