HERAT, Afghanistan - In the past few days, a large number of soldiers from the 207th Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) graduated from professional courses focused on the contrast of the improvised explosive devices (IED), carried out with the assistance of the Italian personnel of the Military Advisor Team (MAT) - the unit of the Italian Army which follows the evolution of the ANA departments in the western region of Afghanistan.
The courses, which averagely last four weeks, qualified the students in identifying and disabling of IEDs or as special machines operators, to be used in the restoration of the road - in case of a bomb explosion - as well as in supporting the construction of them.
The Military Advisor Team, commanded by Colonel Mario Nicola Greco, has recently organized several training modules - including those for the Afghan instructors, according to the approach 'train the trainer' – in such areas as computer training, medical evacuation, topography, English language, radio communications, urban areas operations, logistics and management. The ultimate goal is to gradually increase the overall capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), which in the western region have reached the threshold of 30,000 units and have acquired the leadership on safety in more than 70 percent of the territory, according with the transition concept, due to be completed within the end of 2014.