Advisors will return to ministries: Pentagon

WASHINGTON (PAN following the murder of four servicemen last week, would return to their offices soon, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

“The commander of US and NATO, Gen. John Allen, has made it clear that the advisors will go back into the ministries when he’s ready for them to go back, and he’s not put a deadline or a timeline on that,” the Pentagon spokesman said.

Navy Capt. John Kirby, who is currently in Afghanistan, told a news conference from Kabul, Gen Allen was in discussions with Afghan ministers of the interior and defence about what they were doing to improve security at the ministries.

“I wouldn’t really at this point want to go into any specifics on that because, obviously, we preserve a little bit of your force protection measures. But suffice it to say, he is not ready right now to have the advisors go back. But this is temporary,” Kirby added.

The advisors were still in contact with their Afghan counterparts at the ministries via phone and email, the spokesman said. The work was still continuing, but the US officials were not physically at the ministry buildings, he added.

Recent developments in Afghanistan, he argued, had not impacted on the joint anti-terrorist operations in the country. “The work continues throughout the country. Partnering continues. The growth and development, the training of Afghan national security forces that hasn’t been impacted,” he concluded.

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