WASHINGTON A damning report into the role of private security companies in Afghanistan was issued last night on Thursday by the US Senate armed services committee.

Much of the focus of the report is on the private British security firm ArmorGroup's contract to provide security at an airbase. The report claims that the company hired Afghan warlords to provide security and that at least one was alleged to have close ties to the Taliban.

According to the report, the company referred to the warlords as Mr Pink and Mr White, characters in the 1992 Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs.

The report offers a detailed account of a murderous rivalry between the two warlords and how this almost led to guards abandoning their duties at one point.

One of the most alarming incidents occurred when US troops stormed a meeting attended by a local Taliban leader and found another of the warlords responsible for security, nicknamed Mr White2, present. Both the Taliban leader and the warlord were killed.

This is the second time that ArmorGroup has been in trouble over its activities in Afghanistan. A contract to supply security for the US embassy in Kabul was terminated in December after a US watchdog found security staff had been engaged in drunken parties.

The chairman of the committee, Carl Levin, speaking on Thursday about the role of private security in general in Afghanistan, criticised the companies for lack of vetting of security staff and lack of training and equipment.

He was also scathing about the Pentagon giving US dollars to security firms to pay staff who then allegedly gave money to the Taliban to buy weapons for use against US troops.

“Our reliance on private security contractors in Afghanistan has too often empowered local warlords and powerbrokers who operate outside the Afghan government's control and act against coalition interests,” Levin said. “This situation threatens the security of our troops and puts the success of our mission at risk.”

He added “We need to shut off the spigot of US dollars flowing into the pockets of warlords and powerbrokers who act contrary to our interests and contribute to the corruption that weakens the support of the Afghan people for their government.”The report identifies the two warlords hired in 2007 by ArmorGroup to protect the Shindand airbase in Herat province as Timor Shah (Mr White) and Nadir Khan (Mr Pink). The two were initially recommended to ArmorGroup by the US military, though they later described Mr Pink as a mid-level Taliban operator.

As part of an apparent local power struggle, Shah was ambushed and killed by Khan, who was then alleged to have holed up with Taliban fighters. Scouting around for another local strongman, ArmorGroup hired Khan's brother, Reza, whom it named Mr White2, paying him $12,000 a month.

When US forces attacked Reza Khan's house in Azizabad in August 2008, they found Mullah Sadeq, a Taliban commander and his colleagues, the report says. Both Sadeq and Khan were killed.

US forces, according to the report, found landmines and fuses at the house.

An ArmorGroup spokesman in London declined to comment until the company had read the report.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service