(Miami Herald): Police in Afghanistan are one of the country’s most-criticized security forces, denigrated as corrupt and inept. Yet Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi says police are also the hardest hit, taking 70% of all casualties among government forces, dozens of whom die each day in relentless attacks by Taliban and Islamic State insurgents. Still, President Donald Trump is impatient with Afghanistan’s police, saying American soldiers have taken on their job and that it’s time for Afghans to step up. He says that’ll allow Washington to end its longest war, now into its 18th year. Even as Trump abruptly called off a deal with the Taliban earlier this month that seemed imminent, he expressed his frustration with the state of Afghanistan’s security forces, taking particular aim at the policing. Leading the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, is Andarabi. He’s young, Western-educated and part of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s new generation of leaders. He spoke about what he called a slow, steady overhaul of the police during an interview with The Associated Press inside the heavily fortified ministry in the capital, Kabul.
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