Afghan leader issues ban on private security firms

[August 17, 2010]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai issued a decree Tuesday formalizing a four-month deadline for private security companies to disband.

With complaints that they are poorly regulated, reckless and effectively operate outside local law, such operators have become a point of contention between the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO coalition forces and the international community.

Private security contractors working in Afghanistan will have to either join the Afghan police force or cease operations by the deadline, according to the decree.

The decree does provide an exception for private security firms working inside of compounds used by international groups, including embassies, businesses and non-governmental organizations.

"They will have to stay inside of the organization's compound and will have to be registered with the Interior Ministry," the decree says.

All security outside of these compounds will have to be provided by Afghan security forces, along with all security for supply convoys for international troops, the decree says.

Any unlicensed contractor will have their weapons and equipment seized, it says.

The deadline was announced Monday by Karzai's spokesman but no details were available until the decree was formally issued.

The decree is expected to meet resistance from NATO officials who rely heavily on private security companies to guard convoys and installations across the country. Officials in Washington have questioned whether a four-month deadline is realistic.

Karzai pledged in his inauguration speech in November to shutter both foreign and domestic security contractors by November 2011. This decree significantly speeds up the timeline.

The Afghan government has estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people work for security companies in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Interior Ministry has 52 security firms licensed, but some older contracts are still being completed by unlicensed firms, according to the U.S. military. According to the Pentagon, there are about 26,000 private security contractors working in Afghanistan for 37 different companies -- 17 of them Afghan-owned. The State Department and USAID rely the most heavily on the companies to provide their employees security.

Also Tuesday, officials said bomb attacks killed three U.S. service members and two Afghan civilians in Afghanistan.

The deaths -- in eastern and western Afghanistan -- were a reminder that the Afghan war continues to be violent far from the southern Taliban strongholds currently targeted by a surge of U.S. troops. Recent months have been particularly deadly for both NATO forces and Afghan civilians countrywide.

Two of the Americans were killed in a bombing in the east, while the third was killed in the west, NATO said. It did not provide details on where or how they were attacked. Including these deaths, 15 U.S. service members have been killed so far this month.

Meanwhile, a bomb hidden on a motorbike killed two Afghan street cleaners early Tuesday in eastern Ghazni province.

The bomb, which was remote-detonated, appeared to be targeting a police truck that was driving down the street in Ghazni city, said Ismail Jahangir, a provincial government spokesman.

While it wounded one police officer, the explosion killed two civilian city workers who were cleaning up trash on the street, Jahangir said. An additional four civilians were wounded, he said.

[Associated Press; By HEIDI VOGT]

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