BBC在线收听下载:阿富汗国防军资金缺乏导致裁军

BBC news with Suman Gamry.

The Afghan Defence Ministry has insisted the country has enough soldiers to fight insurgents after US government report said the strength of the security forces has declined sharply. The American analysis paper said the number of security personnel had dropped by 10 percent in a year. Here's our South Asia Editor Anbarasan Ethirajan.

They are pointing out a variety of reasons, one of them being cuts because of the funding constraints by the Afghan National Army. And there are also other reasons, the number of attacks in Afghanistan have been increased for the past two years. And there are reports that the Afghan Army was taking out on 5000 casualties per year. Number of soldiers were deserting the army's also on the rise.

The Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan has told Parliament he's committed to holding early elections if it elects him prime minister. Mr. Pashinyan was speaking as thousands of his supporters packed the main square in the capital Yerevan to acclaim his expected appointment. Mr. Pashinyan, who is the only candidate, warned there would be consequences if his election was blocked.

I want to clearly state from this moment, you didn't understand and still don't understand the situation in the country. And I want to warn you directly that your attempts to interpret the tolerance of the pan-national movement as weakness could cause a political tsunami, literally.

Reports from Northern Syria say 23 civilians have been killed in an airstrike in a village held by Islamic State militants. Earlier a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters said it was relaunching its campaign against IS in the region. Alan Johnston reports.

The US-backed alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces has driven the Islamic State group out of As Suwayda of northern Syria. But when the militants appear to be on the verge of final defeat in January, the SDF paused its campaign. It was distracted by a Turkish army invasion of northwestern Syria. But now the alliance says it has reorganised its ranks and is ready to resume its efforts to drive IS out of small areas it holds near the Iraqi frontier.

BBC news.