AFGHANISTAN: ITALY PLEDGES 75 NEW TRAINERS FOR ANSF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ROME 000195 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2020 TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR MOPS NATO IT AF SUBJECT: AFGHANISTAN: ITALY PLEDGES 75 NEW TRAINERS FOR ANSF REF: A. STATE 14366 ¶B. ROME 83 ¶C. ROME 172 ROME 00000195 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Acting Political Minister-Counselor J. Liam Wasley for R easons 1.4 (B) and (D) ¶1. (C) Summary: MOD La Russa called the Ambassador on February 18 to inform him that Italy would provide 75 additional trainers in response to appeals from Secretary Gates and NATO SYG Rasmussen. 35 of these will be military and 40 will be Carabinieri police trainers. This will entail a redistribution of forces within the 1,000-troop pledge offered by Italy in December, since that number is already contained in the bill currently before Parliament (which is expected to pass without difficulty in the coming weeks). La Russa was pleased to be able to provide a rapid response to the requests and underscored the firmness of Italy's commitment to Afghanistan. MOD and MFA officials confirmed to us that the overall total number of trainers -- military and Carabinieri -- is expected to rise to 500 after this increase takes effect. Italy currently has seven Operational Mentor Liaison Teams (OMLTs) and two Police training teams (POMLTs) in RC-West with one more POMLT expected to arrive by the end of June 2010. The overall troop level that Italy expects to reach by November 2010 remains just under 4,000 (Ref B). End Summary. ¶2. (C) MOD Ignazio La Russa called the Ambassador on February 18 after having spoken to NATO SYG Rasmussen. He said that Rasmussen had made a request for additional trainers for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) similar to that made by SecDef in his February 6-8 visit to Rome (Ref C). La Russa responded that Italy could provide, within the 1,000 troop increase already pledged in December, 75 additional trainers. Carabinieri and MFA officials later told us that 35 of these will be institutional military trainers (including some ITALIAN Air Force trainers for an Afghan Air Force training center in RC-West and ITALIAN Army trainers for an infantry academy) and 40 will be Carabinieri. (Note: The GOI has already presented a draft decree to Parliament covering the 1,000-troop increase; to add additional trainers above this number would require a separate authorization from Parliament. Hence the decision to fold the 75 trainers into the current pledge). MOD is currently considering deploying the additional 40 Carabinieri to police training centers in Shouz (Farah Province) and in the Kabul region. When asked why the additional Carabinieri will not deploy as POMLTs, Carabinieri officials said that they currently lack the armored vehicles necessary to do so. ¶3. (C) MOD and MFA officials told us that the total number of Italian trainers in Afghanistan is expected to rise to 500 after this increase takes effect. The bulk of these are Carabinieri trainers and OMLTs. Along with the UK, Italy already has one of the largest OMLT contributions in ISAF, with seven OMLTs in RC-West. MFA and MOD officials reiterated to us that this is the maximum they can currently provide, given the fact that ITALIAN OMLTs are larger than most (about 30-40 pax compared to 15-30 for the average ISAF OMLT) and each one has to be formed from the staff of an existing ITALIAN regiment or battalion, incapacitating it and removing it from the roster of units deployable overseas. Given its large overseas deployment posture (over 9,000 troops, with large deployments in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Lebanon),Italy needs all deployable units at full strength in order to meet the 1,000 troop pledge it has made in Afghanistan. ¶4. (C) With regard to police training, Italy has pledged 200 Carabinieri (including 3 POMLTs) to the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A) and a Carabinieri General holds the one-star Combined Training Advisory Group (Police) Command within NTM-A. Of this 200, 180 are currently on the ground (60 at the ANCOP training center in Adraskan, 20 at NTM-A HQ in Kabul; two 20-officer POMLTs in Herat (attached to the Regional and Provincial ANP Commands, respectively),30 each at the ANP Central Training Centers in Herat and Kabul). The remaining 20-officer POMLT has yet to be deployed to an ANP command in Shindand or Farah, and is slated to arrive when the ANP unit is ready to receive it -- probably by the end of June. Finally, Italy has another 40 or so Carabinieri in Afghanistan deployed outside of NTM-A as EUPOL mentors, ROME 00000195 002.2 OF 002 military police, forensic investigators and force protection. THORNE