KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his national-security team endorsed a U.S.- backed plan Wednesday to set up local police forces around the country, allowing villagers to protect themselves in areas where international and Afghan forces can’t be spared.
The new Local Police Force initiative will be overseen by the Afghan government. That was a key demand of Karzai, who fears that simply arming villagers without government oversight would essentially create local militias that could undermine his administration and possibly fuel a new civil war.
Karzai’s office offered no details about the plan, other than a statement released Wednesday evening saying the Local Police Force would be under the direct supervision of the Interior Ministry.
NATO officials declined to publicly comment on the program, even though the NATO commander, Gen. David Petraeus, has been intimately involved in discussions about it in recent days at the presidential palace. However, a coalition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed U.S. backing for the plan.
