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UN evacuates staff from Afghanistan

Sydney Morning Herald - November 6, 2009

Paul McGeough, Kabul – Deteriorating security for foreigners – military and civilian – in Afghanistan was underscored yesterday by a United Nations decision to evacuate almost half its staff from the country and a call from London for an investigation of Taliban infiltration of the Afghan security services after a local policeman killed five British troops.

After a gun and suicide-bomb attack on guesthouse frequented by UN workers in Kabul last week, in which five foreign staff died, the UN said 600 "non-essential" staff would leave the country temporarily while security at their living quarters was upgraded.

A UN spokesman estimated the upgrade would take three to four weeks and said key tasks, such as the delivery of aid, would not be disrupted because it was carried out by Afghan employees.

"The United Nations is fully committed to helping all of Afghanistan's people, as it has been for more than half a century," a UN statement said.

The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, said at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday that unless the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, took "visible steps" to stem corruption, "all the troops in the world won't" be able to stabilise the country.

The US has committed 68,000 troops to the Afghanistan conflict, and the US President, Barack Obama, is weighing up whether to send up to 40,000 more.

The British Government has ordered an urgent review of the extent of Taliban infiltration of the 100,000-strong Afghan police force as a hunt continued for a police officer who killed five British soldiers in Helmand province.

The deaths have prompted deep soul-searching in London because the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has put the training by the British Army of a rapidly expanded Afghan security force at the heart of his exit strategy from Afghanistan.

Faced with Labour backbench calls for a phased withdrawal, Mr Brown said the work of the troops must continue. "We must not allow ourselves to give up what the Afghan Taliban fear most: that we will have a strong Afghan security force that is Afghan-based and is able to face them," the Prime Minister told a sombre House of Commons.

According to military officials, the five soldiers were killed while drinking tea inside a military compound in the village of Shin Kalay. Reports suggested they had taken off their helmets and body armour and had laid down their weapons, as proof of trust in their hosts.

They were fired upon by a police officer with a machine-gun who was on the roof of a military checkpoint. Four were killed immediately and the fifth died of his wounds, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

It is thought the gunman had an argument with one of his superiors shortly before he opened fire. Local elders said the man, named Gulbadin, had links with the Taliban. British defence officials said there was no clear evidence the attack had been planned by the Taliban. (With Guardian News & Media)

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