Official: CIA runs elite Afghan fighting force - World news - South and Central Asia - Afghanistan - msnbc.com

Official: CIA runs elite Afghan fighting force - World news - South and Central Asia - Afghanistan - msnbc.com

By ADAM GOLDMAN, KIMBERLY DOZIER

updated 9/22/2010 5:12:49 PM ET

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KABUL, Afghanistan — The CIA has trained and bankrolled a well-paid force of elite Afghan paramilitaries for nearly eight years to hunt al-Qaida and the Taliban for the CIA, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Modeled after U.S. special forces, the Counterterrorist Pursuit Team was set up in the months following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2002 to penetrate territory controlled by the Taliban and al-Qaida and target militants for interrogations by CIA officials.

The 3,000-strong Afghan teams are used for surveillance and long-range reconnaissance missions and some have trained at CIA facilities in the United States. The force has operated in Kabul and some of Afghanistan's most violence-wracked provinces including Kandahar, Khost, Paktia and Paktika, according to a security professional familiar with the program.