U.S. Gen. David Petraeus has encountered resistance from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to a plan to recruit villagers to fight the Taliban, a newspaper said.
A first meeting last week between Petraeus and Karzai grew tense after the Afghan leader renewed objections to the plan, U.S. officials told The
Washington Post.
The village defense forces are seen as critical in the U.S. strategy against al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Karzai's stance represents a significant hurdle
to Petraeus as he takes charge of the war effort in Afghanistan.
Senior U.S. officials said the United States wants to double the number of sites for developing village defense forces to about two dozen and they hope to overcome Karzai's concerns.
An Afghan official told the Post Karzai fears creating "a force that will be viewed as a private militia."
"We should be empowering the community in a way that doesn't risk future stability," the official said. "We are not looking for a solution only for
our sake. We try to find solutions for the sake of the U.S. and Afghanistan."
Under the program, villagers would paid by the United States and trained by U.S. Special Operations Forces.