FARAH, Dec 23 (Agencies): Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday replaced two of the country's top security chiefs with staunch anti-Taliban officials, in a major shake-up days after US President Donald Trump's decision to slash troop numbers in the country.
Amrullah Saleh and Assadullah Khaled, both former heads of the Afghan intelligence agency, have been appointed to the critical posts of interior minister and defence minister, respectively, a presidential decree said.
There was no official explanation for the sudden reshuffle.
But it comes four months after Ghani rejected the resignations of former interior minister Wais Ahmad Barmak and defence minister Tariq Shah Bahrami following criticism over an increasingly deadly insurgency.
The move caps a tumultuous few days for Afghanistan after an American official told AFP late last week that Trump had decided to pull out "roughly half" of the 14,000 US forces in the country.
The unexpected move stunned and dismayed foreign diplomats and Afghan officials in Kabul who are intensifying a push to end the 17-year conflict with the Taliban.
Meanwhile, up to 10 Taliban militants have been killed following a NATO-led coalition forces' airstrike in Afghan western province of Farah, local police said Sunday.
The strike targeted a militants' hideout in Bala Buluk district's Ab-e-Khurma village on Saturday, leaving 10 Taliban militants including their customhouse official named Mullah Nayazi dead, provincial police spokesman Mohebullah Muheb told the news agency.
Ghani replaces top Afghan security chiefs
FE Team | Published: December 23, 2018 21:31:56
Ghani replaces top Afghan security chiefs
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