General predicts fierce summer fighting in Afghan east

The commander of Nato-led foreign forces and US troops in Afghanistan said the war-torn country would see significant fighting in the east this summer. "As I look to reduce the numbers of US forces, ... I will use significant combat power in the east, anticipating we are going to have some good bit of fighting in the east this year," US General John Allen said Wednesday in an interview in Kabul with German media.
He said, however, that next year would be the most critical for the military alliance since the US-led war started more than a decade ago because next year would be when Afghan forces take the lead in providing security to the Afghan people. The general, who commands 130,000 Nato troops in the country, said that by the end of summer in 2013, the entire population of Afghanistan "will be protected by Afghan security forces in the lead."
The training of Afghan forces would not conclude until the end of 2014 when foreign troops are slated to stop all their combat operations, Allen said. Last year, the United States withdrew 10,000 of its soldiers, leaving about 90,000 there. It is scheduled to pull out 23,000 more by the end of September.
The US is currently negotiating a strategic partnership agreement with the Afghan government, which, among other things, is to determine what kind of American military presence, if any, would remain in Afghanistan after 2014. One of the sticking points is night raids on Afghan homes conducted by US special forces. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly demanded these operations be stopped.
Nato military officials claimed those raids remained one of the most successful strategies to weaken the Taliban insurgency. Allen said all the night operations are now conducted in joint operations with Afghan commandos. "So even though what had traditionally been US-only night operations, now Afghans are on those operations in sufficient numbers that by and large only Afghans will clear an objective," Allen said. The general said US special forces provide security around the objective "but the most important thing for the Afghan citizens and for President Karzai has always been that if you must enter a compound or if you must enter a home, that it should be an Afghan."