Afghanistan: Ghani replaces top security chiefs amid rising Taliban insurgency

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani has replaced two of the country's top security chiefs with staunch anti-Taliban officials in the wake of intensified assaults by the militant group across the war-ravaged country.

In a presidential decree on Sunday, the president appointed Amrullah Saleh and Assadullah Khaled to the critical posts of interior minister and defense minister, respectively. Both men will serve as acting ministers until the parliament approves their appointments.

Saleh, who fought against the Taliban in the 1990s, served as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan spy agency, from 2004 to 2010. Khaled was briefly the NDS chief in 2012 before being wounded by a Taliban bomber.

There was no official explanation for the sudden reshuffle, but it comes months after Ghani rejected the resignations of former Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak and Defense Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami following criticism over an increasingly deadly insurgency.

Four top security officials in Afghanistan's government resigned in August. The president later rejected the resignations of three of them. He then directed the interior and defense ministers and the spy master to continue their duties, rejecting their letters of resignation.

Ghani, who is planning to seek re-election in April, could also be trying to strengthen his security credentials ahead of the vote.

SS