NATO, Afghan troops train together

[unhappycamper]

NATO, Afghan troops train together
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, November 30, 2008

HOHENFELS, Germany — Afghan and NATO soldiers trained at the Joint Multinational Training Command this month as part of efforts to boost the size of the Afghan National Army by almost 70 percent.

Eighty Afghan soldiers spent 2½ weeks at Hohenfels training alongside troops from the United States, Germany, France, Hungary, Canada, Slovenia, Slovakia, Australia and Italy, according to Maj. Sean Coulter, Operations chief for JMTC’s Grizzly Observer Controller Team.

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Shawn Graham, of the Security Transition Command—Afghanistan, said the JMTC training is key to a plan to increase the ANA by thousands of troops. According to The Associated Press the U.S. and Afghan governments agreed to increase personnel in the ANA from an earlier target of 80,000 men to 134,000.

Coulter said the NATO troops are organized into eight infantry and five combat service support Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams. The teams will deploy to Afghanistan to mentor ANA troops and work with the International Security Assistance Force.

At Hohenfels, the Afghans received technical training on how to conduct raids, how to react to contact and how to operate M-16 rifles that the United States is supplying to the ANA, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59138