Drawdown in Afghanistan at halfway mark

KABUL -- The top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan said yesterday that this year's pullout of 23,000 American troops is at the halfway mark. But he cautioned against putting too much emphasis on the drawdown, saying foreign troops will fight through 2014 when the NATO combat mission ends -- and beyond.

U.S. Gen. John Allen said Afghan security forces were increasingly taking the lead but needed more confidence in planning and executing missions.

He said the drawdown of 23,000 troops this year, now slightly more than half completed, will accelerate in the coming few months.

"The preponderance still remains to go out," Allen said. "August will be the heaviest month. A lot is coming out now and a great deal will come out in August and early September. We'll be done probably around mid-September or so."

Allen said this summer's offensive was aimed at pushing insurgents farther from population centers, expanding the security zone around Kabul and getting more Afghan forces into the lead in the east, including along the border with Pakistan.

President Barack Obama pulled out 10,000 U.S. troops last year and ordered another 23,000 to be withdrawn by Sept. 30. That will leave 68,000 troops still in the country. By Oct. 1, 40,000 NATO forces will also still be fighting with some 352,000 Afghan troops.

"The stakes are high. The fact that we were attacked on the 11th of September [2001] is a direct-line relationship between what happened on that day and what could happen again if we don't get this right," Allen said. "I think an awful lot has gone in during the last several years into getting this right. It's not going to end at the end of 2014."

Between one-third and one-half of the 23,000 troops being pulled out are combat forces, he said. Small numbers are being pulled out of the relatively stable northern and western parts of the country. Some will be withdrawn from the east and the south "and a good bit in the southwest," he said.

U.S., NATO and Afghan forces have worked the past two years to improve security in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

Those forces also are working in the east to stop the infiltration of insurgents crossing the border from Pakistan, expanding the security zone around Kabul in Wardak and Logar provinces, just south of the capital, and improving security along highways extending southward from the capital.

In the northeast, coalition and Afghan forces are conducting extensive operations in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, areas where al-Qaida and other transnational militants are active.