| Major Mohammad Farid Ahamdi will become the first officer from the nascent Afghan National Army (ANA) to attend the top US military college at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. "An Afghan National Army major will be the first ANA officer to attend at the United States Army Command and General Staff college at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in the near future," Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram Air Base. Ahmadi, 30, is an instructor at Kabul Military Training Centre where ANA officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted soldiers are trained. "The US army college prepares captains and majors as future senior leaders in their respective militaries," Davis said. "The future success of the ANA and subsequently the stability of Afghanistan depends on people like Major Ahmadi who play a key role in the future of Afghanistan." The course lasts about one year and attracts top officers from some 110 countries. Afghanistan aims by next summer to have a "central corps" of 9,000 to 12,000 soldiers, a fraction of the goal of a 70,000-strong army to replace the current armies of militiamen in the provinces. The United Nations has called for urgent implementation of reforms to make the army and defence ministry more representative of the country's ethnic and regional mix. Ethnic Tajik Defence Minister Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim has been accused of trying to pack the army with Tajik recruits. The Japanese-funded process of disarming, demobilising and reintegrating some 100,000 militiamen is due to start in coming weeks. |