KABUL, Afghanistan -- Weapons caches were found on Monday near Bagram and Shkin. Tuesday, near Gardez, an Afghan citizen turned in a cache with more than 400 recoilless rifle rounds and 100 mortar rounds.
The United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, announced on Sunday that the US will fund construction of 152 new schools and refurbishment of 255 more within the next six months. He made the announcement at a ceremony opening the new school year, the third since the collapse of the Taliban regime.
An estimated 5.5 million students are expected to return to the classroom this year, 1.5 million more than last year. And the percentage of girls attending school grew to 36 percent last year and that number is expected to further increase this year.
Since 2002 the United States has constructed and rehabilitated over 200 schools, reached 16,000 students through accelerated learning programs, trained 2,100 teachers, and distributed 10.3 million textbooks.
Today is the grand opening of the Afghan National Army Recruiting Station in Ghazni City. Tomorrow we will celebrate the grand opening of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Khowst. This is the 12th PRT grand opening and four more PRTs are scheduled to open in the next several months. |