Both it and the Afghan police, of whom there are currently 84, 000, may end up being doubled.
"I would not want to draw conclusions about all the Afghan police from one single incident, " he added.
But the Afghan police told me they had no radios to call either the Afghan soldiers or the Americans.
Like the Afghan police, Qasim, the Afghan platoon leader, had no radios.
It warns that the growth of a lucrative private security industry has drawn new recruits away from the Afghan police and army, where salaries are lower.
This tally does not include the Dec. 24 killing of an American civilian adviser by a female member of the Afghan police, because an investigation of the reportedly mentally unstable woman is continuing.
Within this perimeter, the team members pitched their tents, with the DynCorp men in one area and, in another area, the Afghan police, some of whom slept on cots in the backs of trucks.
Though there are continued worries about corruption within the Afghan police force and army, and about infiltration into the security forces by insurgent sympathisers, this time the Afghan forces acquitted themselves well once the fighting started.
Given the failure of the Afghan police to protect the UN compound, a broader concern is whether the country's security forces will ever be up to the job of managing less benign areas of Afghanistan than Mazar-i-Sharif, which is far from the Taliban's heartland.
ECONOMIST: Singular incident or harbinger of something worse?
We will continually evaluate where we are, what needs to happen, how do we build Afghan capacity, how do we train up the Afghan national police and the Afghan national army as part of a comprehensive national security force that gives us the ability, once areas are cleared, to be able to transfer, again, both from a governance and a military perspective.
"As in the election's first round, ISAF will only provide third-layer of security, reinforcing the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army in line with the security plan signed by the chairman of the Afghan Independent Election Commission along with representatives from the Afghan Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Defense, and ISAF in 2008, " Shanks said.
We can pull -- some of those troops obviously will be used for training, either of the Afghan national army or ultimately the Afghan national police.
Rahman, the general in charge of the Afghan border police, were already waiting in a large office on the second floor of the two-story building when Prince arrived.
Despite the considerable growth in the size of the Afghan National Police (ANP), some challenges remain such as high rate of illiteracy among the recruits.
In June, Lt Chesterman was asked to form a Police Advisory Team working with 1st Battalion Welsh Guards Battle Group to improve the mentoring of the Afghan National Police.
Behind the army came large earthmovers, to build checkpoints for the Afghan Border Police.
Mr. Karzai was a fierce opponent of plans to establish the Afghan Local Police irregular, community-based fighting units that are trained and mentored by U.S. Special Operations Forces.
"The Afghan National Police (ANP) is ill-equipped for this role, and has been targeted by the Taliban, with 1, 200 killed in 2007 and a similar toll expected in 2008, " the group added.
CNN: Report: Afghan police should focus on crime, not militants
He said he believes that the officer was the first female Afghan police officer to die in the line of duty since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
He said there were three main aims - ensuring the troop surge works and counter-insurgency continues "full steam ahead", training the Afghan army and police, and achieving the political settlement needed "with those elements of the Taliban that want to lay down their weapons".
At least some American commanders worry that, in four or five years, the U.S. may find itself cutting the size of the Afghan Army and police even as they are fighting the Taliban.
The diminishing number of Western forces in Helmand is one of the first visible signs that Nato's 13-year involvement in Afghanistan is gradually drawing down, though British commanders are keen to stress that they will do all they can over what they term an "important summer" to ensure the Afghan army and police are ready to take on the fight.
It was tasked with developing the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan police units in the area to take on responsibility for security.
With the insurgency pushed out to the edges of society, and the Afghan army and police improving, there was a growing sense of optimism in the country, commanders had told him.
Afghan officials say the incident began after an Afghan Border Police unit deployed on the Goshta border noticed that the Pakistani forces began additional work on fortifying their outpost, despite recent agreements to suspend such construction.
The ranks of the Afghan army and police force are slowly filling with recruits.
It's the mission of our forces in Afghanistan now to try and train the Afghan army and police.
And above all, they must train and expand the Afghan army and police so they can gradually take over.
During his 19-month tour, Gen Allen managed the transfer of security across much of the country to the Afghan army and police.
BBC: Afghan Isaf commander John Allen sees 'road to winning'
American commanders say they are confident that the Afghan Army and police will be able to take over the fight as NATO forces draw down.
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