Turkey exports technology

[Boghos]

Turkish police train 13 northern alliance guards

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 28 -- Turkish police are training 13 guards of

Afghanistan's northern alliance in Istanbul to help build a stronger

police force in Afghanistan.

 

The guards arrived last week for three weeks of training at the Istanbul

Police Department, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry

oversees police and security.

 

The ministry said the northern alliance leadership requested that Turkey

train the 13 guards. He said it was not clear if more guards would arrive

for training. Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, has strongly supported

the U.S.-led campaign against Afghanistan's Islamic Taliban rulers and

Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the

United States.

 

It was the first Muslim country to offer troops for combat in the U.S.-led

campaign in Afghanistan. a Turkish force of up to 3,000 soldiers is on

standby for a possible peacekeeping mission.

 

Turkey has a long history of training Afghan officials both in Afghanistan

and in Turkey since the 1920s. Thousands of Afghan students also have

attended Turkish schools. The country enjoys close links to groups

opposed to the ruling Taliban regime and especially to Uzbek Gen.

Rashid Dostum of the northern alliance.