Afghan security transition to start in 7 areas

Reuters

 

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's leader announced on Tuesday seven areas would be included in the first phase of a gradual transition of security from NATO troops to Afghan forces in July, including volatile cities in the south and north.

The announcement was the first tentative step in a long process that will end with the withdrawal of all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014, a process agreed by U.S. and NATO leaders last year.

"Transition is the right of the Afghan people and, therefore, we should stand on this right and we want this transition to happen," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a graduation ceremony for Afghan military officers on a base at Kabul airport.

"We want to end this bloody war, we have to take this country toward peace by any means," he said.

The handover will be a crucial test of the readiness of Afghan forces, which face a knot of recruitment, training and battlefield challenges despite a big push by U.S. and other Western trainers in recent years.

The transition was agreed last year at a time when the war had reached its bloodiest phase since the Taliban were overthrown by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, with European leaders in particular under pressure from a war-weary public.

Civilian and military casualties are at record levels, with the insurgency spreading out of Taliban bastions in the south and east into once peaceful areas in the north and west.

U.S. military commanders have warned of a tough spring campaign ahead with a renewed offensive expected from Taliban-led insurgents.

Karzai said the relatively peaceful provinces of Bamiyan and Panjshir, the western city of Herat, areas around the capital Kabul, and part of Laghman province nearby were included.

Also on the transition list were Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Lashkar Gah, capital of volatile Helmand province in the south and long a stronghold of the Taliban.

Analysts had warned putting Lashkar Gah on the list as a showpiece would risk a backlash from the Taliban, with the Islamists keen to show the fragility of Afghan control.

Mazar-i-Sharif has also suffered rising levels of insurgent violence over the past two years, with attacks by a complex web of insurgent groups in surrounding provinces as well.

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