For more than a decade Afghanistan had no national army and the residents of provincial areas like Meymanah, in the northern province of Faryab welcome the green-beret troops as a sign of the growing authority of the military arm of the Kabul government in areas long ruled by militia commanders.

The fledgling Afghan army was formed in May 2002 following the signing of peace agreements after the fall of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime. Afghanistan then began to build a 70,000-strong national army with financial support and instruction from the US and other countries.

But hit by mass defections in the early stages and even now outnumbered by scattered militiamen by at least five-to-one, there were fears over whether the people of this war-torn country would trust a US-led Afghan army. Those fears are now ebbing.

Two years after their formation, the national force numbers almost 10,000 soldiers and has been deployed to the south, southeast and east of the country working with US-led coalition troops to hunt and kill Taliban, and Al-Qaeda remnants.

National troops have also been stationed in the north and west to stop factional fighting and implement central government orders where they are warmly received by locals.

So far no private militia group has dared to fight Afghan army troops and US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad recently declared they will number some 24,000 troops by the end of the year.

The national force will also play a large role in the ongoing disarmament of the country, absorbing both the weapons and some of the men from the private armies who are demobilised.

Afghan army soldiers came to Faryab province, of which Meymanah is the capital, in April after tensions between a local militia commander who had been appointed as governor by Kabul and forces loyal to warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam turned violent.

"People warmly welcomed ANA (Afghan National Army) in Faryab province," the province's deputy governor Sayeed Ahmmad Sayeed says.

"A national army leads our nation towards national unity, we appreciate their work in Faryab," says Soraya Jan, a female administrator at Sitara High School in Meymanah.

In northern Balkh and Faryab provinces and Herat in west Afghan soldiers conduct routine patrols on highways hit by banditry and in districts to maintain security. They also give medical help to poor villagers if needed.

The biggest test of the fledgling force was the deployment of some 1,500 soldiers to Herat in March after bloody street factional fighting in the country's wealthiest province and one controlled by the strong fist of warlord and governor Ismael Khan.

"Afghans are tired of factional fighting by militia commanders," says Herat shopkeeper Ali Hussain. "We see the ANA as the only tool which can bring peace to our destroyed country."

Afghanistan has endured more than two decades of conflict beginning with the decade-long Russian invasion and followed by the 1992 to 1996 civil war which destroyed Kabul and all government institutions.

"We appreciate the arrival of the national army to our province, they put an end to factional fighting as soon as they arrived," says 24-year-old Ahmed Jawid, from northern Mazar-i-Sharif city, adding that he wants to enlist with the national army.

WAR.WIRE