Q+A: Afghanistan's security forces

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to announce on Tuesday that he will send about 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in a long-awaited war strategy shift that he hopes will defeat the Taliban and allow for a U.S. exit.

His plans will include a major increase in training of Afghan security forces -- which now number about 190,000 soldiers and police -- so that they are gradually able to assume control.

In his August assessment of the war, U.S. and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal recommended more than doubling the forces to total 400,000, including 240,000 soldiers and 160,000 police.

Obama may settle on a slightly less ambitious target, but will still need to devote billions of dollars and years of effort to create security forces capable of maintaining peace.

Here are some questions and answers about the Afghan security forces.

HOW BIG ARE THEY?

The Afghan army numbers about 95,000 and the police number about 93,000. NATO has already put in place plans this year to speed up training the army to reach a target of 134,000 troops by October 2010. The police should number 96,800 by the end of this year, but targets for expanding the police force further have yet to be set.

WHO TRAINS THEM?

The Afghan army and police are mostly trained by some 6,500 U.S. troops who form part of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A), a U.S. military unit. CSTC-A combined last month with a new NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, which consists of about 900 troops.

The Afghan National Police (ANP) are also trained by some 400 European Union police (EUPOL), which has a mandate until 2010. Some ANP training is also outsourced to private security contractors. The European police training mission, which for years was led by Germany, has been criticized for being far too small and lacking in the paramilitary training necessary for a force operating in an insurgency.

Police and army units are usually deployed with small teams of U.S. or NATO mentors, who live on their bases and deploy with them in the field.

HOW GOOD ARE THEY?

The Afghan National Army is widely acknowledged to be one relative success story in Afghanistan, especially in comparison with the police. The most common complaint about them from Western commanders is that there simply aren't enough of them to hold territory, especially in combat zones like Helmand Province in the south.

The Afghan National Police, by contrast, are seen both by Afghans and Western commanders as a mess. The U.S. military has said the police exist in "a culture of corruption". Afghans complain that they take bribes, while Western troops complain that they do not stand and fight. They are frequently targeted by militants and have borne about four times as many casualties as either Afghan army soldiers or Western troops. They suffer from low morale, widespread absenteeism and rapid turnover. According to McChrystal's August assessment, police are also often controlled by local power brokers, who use the force for their own interests.

Police commanders acknowledge the problems, but say these are due to under-investment by the West in training and equipment, and unfair expectations of a civilian police force operating in a war zone. NATO is hoping intensive re-training will help improve the force.

HOW MUCH DO THEY GET PAID?

Under plans announced this week aimed at increasing recruitment and retention, police and army recruits will get a raise of nearly 40 percent to $165 a month. That is substantial in a country where the GDP per capita is only about $25 a month.

(Compiled by Golnar Motevalli and Peter Graff)