Aust mentors to stay on in Afghanistan

Australian soldiers mentoring Afghan commanders have no doubt the local troops can fight and fight well.

When it comes to higher-end skills like planning and coordination though, problems arise.

For that reason, the long-running Australian mission to mentor the Afghan National Army's 205 Hero Corps in Kandahar will continue after most other troops head home from Oruzgan province at the end of this year.

Australian Army Colonel Joel Dooley, commander of the 205th Corps Coalition Advisory Team, said his team was not due to be rotated until April or May next year.

"And I have been told we are being replaced by a similar-sized team. We are certainly as far as I know committed through 2014," he told AAP.

Dooley's team mentors the 205 Corps headquarters.

That includes its commander Major General Abdul Hamid, a highly regarded officer imprisoned during Taliban rule and who previously commanded the 205 Corps' 4th Brigade, a unit trained and mentored by Australian troops in Oruzgan Province.

This corps comprises almost 20,000 troops responsible for security over a significant part of southern Afghanistan, including areas where insurgents remain active.

Dooley said General Hamid was an experienced officer who didn't need advice on how to command his corps.

"They are out there doing the majority of the fighting right now. With the exception of some enabling support and some special forces action, the actual manoeuvre forces on the ground are the absolute majority Afghan National Security Forces."

"A will to fight and an ability to fight is certainly not a problem they have."

Dooley said the ANA lost soldiers not necessarily every day but pretty often.

"Not because they are bad but because they are toe to toe with the insurgents on a day-to-day basis," he said.

Dooley said the process of mentoring had evolved over time.

Previously that involved Australian soldiers accompanying Afghan units on patrols, providing advice on basic tactics.

Now that's moved to mentoring at the brigade and corps headquarters on particular skills such as planning, coordination, intelligence and logistics.

Dooley's mentoring team comprises 19 Australian and nine US advisers, a close protection team of 36 plus some support personnel, for a total of 67 Australians.

That's actually grown. Previously there was no need for close protection but that's changed with the surge of insider attacks in which Afghans have turned their guns on coalition soldiers including Australians.

Dooley said the risk of insider attack was "ever-present and always significant."

"Obviously we can't do our mission without full regard to our force protection," he said. "We review our force protection measures in conjunction with ISAF constantly."

General Hamid has the highest regard for Australian troops and Australia which he visited last year.

"We want Australia always to be here as our close friend. We don't want to involve them with fighting, only to stay with us as good friends. We need them to help," he told AAP.

"We like them, we want them to stay as brothers and we want to continue our relationships with them. We still need the help of Australian people."

What General Hamid also needs is equipment such as helicopters. When the coalition departs, so will its vast helicopter fleet, leaving just the ANA's very modest air wing.

"There are only seven helicopters in Kandahar. There is only one squadron. We need three times more and different helicopters, support helicopters," he said.

General Hamid said the Afghan army has been established in fighting and grew to its present size in fighting.

"We have been trained by very good people, good armies like the Australian army, the American Army, the British army. In another 10 years we will have a very strong army."

His chief of staff Brigadier General Sayed Shah said almost from the start of coalition operations in Afghanistan, Afghan forces had been advised they would need to prepare to take over responsibility.

"We have been getting ready from that time," he said.

General Shah said insurgents were now capable only of suicide attacks and placing improvised explosive devices which mostly killed civilians, while Afghan forces were inflicting disproportionate losses.

"Last week 35 enemies were killed in action, 62 enemies were wounded in action and three enemies were arrested. Also, we cleared 68 IEDs," he said.

There were no ANA casualties.

The week before it was 90 insurgents killed with ANA casualties of 10 killed and wounded.

"Day by day the capability of the national army capability is going up and our enemy is coming down," he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Searle, chief of staff to the 205 mentoring group, said the Taliban were becoming less effective, particularly in the southern area.

"Our advice and guidance of the 205 Corps is having real positive effects and they are now able to own the battlespace and make the insurgency much less effective," he said.