KABUL - The Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Saturday announced Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) would take tight security measures for the 2014 presidential and provincial council elections.

Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi, speaking to journalists in Kabul, said the number of Afghan forces had remarkably increased; they had undergone advance training courses and received equipment in recent years.

Given the progress thus achieved, they were in a position to better maintain security on their own for future elections, he argued, insisting the forces would be able to cover much of the countryside in the wake of the security switch.

Two months back, he recalled, the security responsibility for the entire country was transferred from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to Afghan forces.

Gen. Azimi added the Afghan security had successfully conducted some major operations in Hesarak, Azra and Sangin districts, where they successfully demonstrated their capabilities.

He added nearly 800 militants recently targeted Afghan military installations in the Sangin district of Helmand, with a large group of insurgents attacking the forces in Farah and Badakhshan. But the assailants drew a befitting response.

The restive Want Waigal district of eastern Nuristan had been under militants’ control over the past several years, despite foreign soldiers’ presence there, he said. The government’s writ in the town had been weak.

However, the government regained the district’s control as a result of an operation by Afghan forces. Residents of the areas under Afghan forces were enjoying better security than in past years, he maintained.

People’s positive cooperation with their forces had enhanced, the spokesman noted, regularly reporting Taliban’s destructive activities to law-enforcement agencies, he continued.

Gen. Azimi was optimistic of a better security environment post-2014, when foreign combat troops are to pull out of the country. He said Afghan forces would receive better training and modern weapons in years ahead. (Pajhwok)