US commanders are taking more cues from Afghans

Colonel Duffy says the recent spurt of violence underscores how development groups need to cooperate, and advises them of when the PRT will bring a military presence to remote districts of southern Afghanistan. Still, while some aid organizations say it is too dangerous for them to operate around Kandahar, they resist any hint of association with US forces, saying that it could undermine their neutrality.

While Kandahar authorities are working to strengthen security in the region, they volunteer that provincial police and military forces remain underpaid, largely uneducated, and undisciplined.

The province of sweeping desert broken by mud-walled villages and abrupt mountains has 1.2 million people and 1,500 police, says police chief Mohammed Hasham. "We need a lot more [police]," he says, sipping tea in a carpeted office. Vehicles and cellphones are also lacking, he says. Policemen only "sometimes" receive their meager monthly pay of $19 and as a result, attrition plagues the force, which Mr. Hasham calls "completely uneducated."

A Kandahar police academy has opened that will train 300 to 400 officers every two months, although illiteracy remains a stumbling block to that effort.

Meanwhile, US military forces have taken steps to bolster security - both to prevent disruption of major events such as voter registration and religious pilgrimages, as well as in response to sporadic violence such as the UN bombing.

Yet political sensitivities as well as a desire to empower Afghan authorities means that US infantrymen and military police play largely a behind-the-scenes supporting role in Kandahar. "We made a conscious decision not to surge infantry soldiers into the center of Kandahar" during recent political meetings, says Dichairo.

Instead, small contingents of military police carry out patrols of key locations, while leaving the bulk of the job to Afghan uniformed and plainclothes police.

"It's a double-edged sword," says Capt. Michelle Meier of the 10th Military Police Company. "Do you go in and look like you are occupying the city and take away the authority the police have now, or do you let them handle it?"

Commanding an armored Humvee through Kandahar's narrow streets, cluttered with donkey carts and ornate motorized rickshaws, Staff Sgt. Paula Jennings says most Afghans seem to welcome her patrols, although a few have thrown rocks or eggs at her gunner.

So far, the combination of Afghan security forces and the US military has prevented major violence from disrupting the political process in Kandahar - but some residents remain uneasy.

"On the first day [of the provincial loya jurga] the police chief received a call from a friend who said someone shooting from a speeding car had killed five people," says Pashtun. The police chief rushed to the scene, but found nothing. Later, his friend apologized and said it was only a rumor his mother heard at the market.

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