The West will subsidise Afghan security forces by more than $4 billion a year after US-led troops leave in 2014, President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday, implicitly accepting a cut in the planned size of his military. Western officials told AFP that no final agreements had been reached on funding or on the size of Afghanistan’s security forces after combat troops in NATO’s US-led International Security Assistance Force withdraw. But Karzai told a graduation ceremony at a military academy in Kabul: “It’s set that post 2014, for the next 10 years until 2024, the international community, with the US in the lead and followed by Europe and other countries, will pay Afghanistan security forces $4.1 billion annually.”
Avalanches kill 22: Avalanches killed 22 people, including women and children, in the north-eastern Badakhashan province, Afghan officials said on Tuesday. According to initial reports, 21 people died in Irak village of Wakhan district on Wednesday night, said Sanaullah Amiri, provincial head of the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA). Massive rescue and clearing efforts were in progress in the avalanche-hit areas, district chief Syed Fairoz said, while confirming the death toll.
