Afghanistan: Bamiyan province handed to local forces

Nato has handed over control of the central Afghan province of Bamiyan to Afghan security forces.

It is the first of seven areas to be passed to local troops under a plan announced by President Karzai in March.

Bamiyan is one of the country's most secure provinces but it is a poor region, heavily reliant on foreign aid.

The handover is seen as a critical step in a transition of power before foreign troops end combat operations in 2014.

Senior Afghan ministers and foreign ambassadors flew down from the capital, Kabul to take part in a transition ceremony that for security reasons was not announced in advance and was not broadcast live.

International forces from New Zealand will remain in the area for the time being, but they will be under Afghan control.
Local fears

The other areas to be handed over are the provinces of Kabul and Panjshir, the cities of Herat and Mazar-e Sharif, the town of Mehtar Lam and Lashkar Gah, the capital of volatile Helmand province in the south where Taliban insurgents remain active.
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BAMIYAN
Central Afghan province famed for the ancient colossal Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001
Mountains cover about 90 percent of the province, which has a population of approximately 61,000
The majority of Bamiyan's population come from the ethnic Hazara group
In 2005 Bamiyan elected Afghanistan's first and only female governor, Habiba Sorabi
In pictures: Buddhas of Bamiyan

On Saturday a British soldier was killed near Lashkar Gah while on patrol with the Afghan army - reports suggest that he might have been shot by a man in an Afghan army uniform.

And just weeks after President Karzai's announcement in March, seven UN staff were killed during a deadly protest in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

The BBC's Jonathan Beale, in Bamiyan, says that if the transition here does not work well, it is hard to see it taking root in less secure parts of the country.

Bamiyan still has many problems with around 50% of the population not getting enough food to eat. Many Afghans who live here are worried that transition will mean more corruption, less employment and less security, our correspondent says.

At the time of the initial handover announcement, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that every step of the transition would be "determined by conditions on the ground."

Correspondents say that despite rising casualty numbers, the surge of extra American troops and tens of thousands of new Afghan police and soldiers have improved security in a number of areas in the country.

However the quality of Afghan police and soldiers is patchy and correspondents warn of fears that they will be unable to withstand a renewed summer offensive from the Taliban.

This is the first step in a long process of withdrawal, after which the primary role of foreign troops will be to train and equip Afghan security forces. Nato troops will cease to engage in battle.