US to send counterintelligence agents to Afghanistan: Report

WASHINGTON: The US military is sending 80 counterintelligence agents to Afghanistan to help stem the threat of Taliban infiltration in the Afghan security forces, The New York Times reported late Friday.

They will enhance the vetting of recruits, review profiles of soldiers being trained, the paper reported, citing unnamed military officials.

They will also generally work to improve procedures to identify those most vulnerable to recruitment by the Taliban and its supporters.

Some of the agents have already arrived, and the rest are expected soon, the newspaper noted, citing Lieutenant Colonel David Simons, a spokesman for the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan.

Fighting between the Taliban and US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan has become deadlier each year since the 2001 invasion.

Washington sent an extra 30,000 American troops onto the battlefield last year in a bid to deliver a decisive blow.

The 130,000 international troops today in the country are due to start limited withdrawals from July, with the Afghan police and army scheduled to take control of security gradually before the end of 2014.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011