230 new graduates join police force in W. Afghanistan

KABUL, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- A total of 230 new graduates joined the Afghan National Police (ANP) in Herat province with Herat city as its capital, 640 km west of capital city of Kabul, a police official said on Wednesday.

"As many as 230 newly trained policemen commissioned to the ANP on Wednesday and were deployed to six districts of Herat province to provide security for their countrymen," a police official with the Adraskan police training center, Fazil Ahmad Karimi told Xinhua.

The Afghan government and NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A) have stepped up efforts to train and equip Afghan police and army as Afghan forces are getting ready to take security responsibility from foreign forces in parts of the country in the coming weeks.

Herat city was among seven areas where Afghan security forces took security responsibilities from NATO forces in July this year, in the first part of a security transition process which will run to 2014 when Afghanistan will take over the full leadership of its own security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.