Karzai orders security firms to leave

The Pentagon, the overwhelming source for the firms' contracts, did not comment directly on the deadline but said it shared Karzai's goal of eventually eliminating the need for private security companies.
 
But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the dissolution should take place "in a deliberate way and a way that recognizes the scale and scope of this challenge."
 
Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omer, said that private firms employed 30,000-40,000 armed personnel across Afghanistan. They are employed by more than 50 companies, roughly half of them Afghan.
 
Whitman said that 26,000 of the personnel were contracted by the US government, of which 19,000 were paid by the Defense Department. Others were mostly with the State Department and the US Agency for International Development.
 
The firms provide security across violence-wracked Afghanistan to groups ranging from foreign militaries and embassies to non-governmental organizations to media companies.
 
The United States and its allies would likely count on security firms to support future international operations in Afghanistan.
 
The United States plans to start withdrawing combat troops from Afghanistan in mid-2011, although General David Petraeus, the US commander in the country, said Sunday he could recommend a delay if the situation requires it.