Afghan Army Units Ordered to Leave Kabul in Three Days

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 10, 2002

Afghan Army Units Ordered to Leave Kabul in Three Days

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Afghan military units in Kabul have been ordered to withdraw to their barracks outside the capital within three days, to allow Afghan police and multinational peacekeepers to patrol the city, interior ministry officials said Wednesday.

"(Interior Minister Yunis) Qanooni has decided that all these military units affiliated to the defence ministry that took part in the conquest of Kabul should evacuate the city within three days," said Din Mohammad Jorat, chief of the law and order departement at the ministry.

"After that the peacekeeping force along with our police force will be patrolling the city," he told AFP.

Jorat said clearance permits for carrying weapons have already been prepared, to prevent "irresponsible" people from bearing weapons inside the city.

The Afghan police force and the Kabul Garrison units were supervising the withdrawal of military units to locations outside Kabul, he said.

"There is no need for the international force to conduct the operation of pulling out the military units. Our police force and Kabul Garrison has been doing it."

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is being led by Britain for the first three months of its six-month term, is expected to number some 4,500 troops by the end of this month.

Under an agreement signed between ISAF and the Afghan interim administration, the force is confined to Kabul and its environs and its powers are strictly limited.

Its main function "is to assist in the maintenance of the security" in Kabul and surrounding areas, according to the Military Technical Agreement (MTA) signed last week.

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