State Department to help protect Afghan leader

Karzai celebrates Afghan Independence Day on August 19.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department plans to take over responsibility for the security of Afghan President Hamid Karzai from the U.S. military, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

Although no specific date has been set, Jo-Anne Prokopowicz, a State Department spokeswoman said, "The State Department's diplomatic security service is discussing modalities to assume protective responsibility for President Karzai sometime in September."

The mission will be comprised of State Department diplomatic security service personnel, support from the U.S. military and private contractors.

"This detail will augment Afghan security for President Karzai and they will look at training an Afghan security detail for him," added Prokopowicz.

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"Afghanistan is a dangerous and unstable place ... a key reconstruction goal for the international community is to improve security for the whole nation. Presidential protection is one part of that mission. If we are to build and enhance the authority of a centralized government, that government must be in a position to operate without fear of terrorist retaliation," she said.

The State Department as a matter of policy does not disclose specific security arrangements.

"The diplomatic security service has had a long tradition of excellence in protecting dignitaries domestically and abroad," the spokeswoman added.

U.S. military personnel began providing security for the Afghan president after the assassination of one of Afghanistan's three vice presidents, Haji Abdul Qadir.

Qadir was the second Afghan Cabinet minister to be assassinated this year. In February, the Afghan Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism Abdul Rahman was assassinated at Kabul airport.

In addition, four people were killed and 20 others injured when a bomb exploded near a convoy carrying Afghanistan's interim defense minister Mohammed Fahim in April.