Afghan Militia Fighters Train Australian Soldiers

In a surprising and controversial bit of role reversal, Afghan militia fighters are reported to be training Australian special forces troops who are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan.

Six senior fighters reportedly loyal to influential warlord Matiullah Khan, the most powerful figure in Uruzgan province, were flown to Australian bases last week to help strengthen military operations against insurgents.

Air Marshall Angus Houston, the head of the Australian Defence Force, said that the men would be "fighting side by side with our special forces when we do the next deployment."

His department said that the men were members of the Afghan National Police Provisional Response Company, which reports to the Afghan Ministry of Police. He did not comment on reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that they also reported to Khan, a contentious figure in Afghanistan.

"They are brought over here to do the final part of preparations for the next deployment," Mr Houston said.

"The important thing everybody needs to understand is this makes the operating environment safer for the Australian troops who are going to deploy."

The fighters were shown combat training displays at bases in South Australia and outer Sydney. News of the unlikely alliance has prompted concern.

While US forces have worked with Khan for years Dutch forces have refused to do the same and blocked his appointment as local police chief because he has been accused of murder and extortion, both of which he denies. Khan is also suspected of sponsoring Taliban activity in Uruzgan in an attempt to tighten his control over the region.

William Maley, director of the Australian National University's Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, warned that Khan was a questionable ally.

"Muttiallah is a classic example of the wisdom of the old warning that those who sup with the devil should use a long spoon," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"Very often it's all too easy to be seduced by the charms or the apparent skills of a particular tribal actor without properly absorbing the extent to which this then reshapes the wider environment in which one is working in an undesirable direction."

Retired Major General Jim Molan, an Australian who was the US-led international forces' chief of operations in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, said training with Khan's militia was a calculated risk.

"It's not confirmed that they're worse than the Taliban and if you can do a greater good, then I think morally you've got to take a risk," he told the ABC.

By: Shelldrake