Petraeus scraps McChrystal's plan to secure Kandahar

KABUL: New US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, scrapped his predecessor's plan to secure the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday.

Petraeus has decided that a full-scale military encirclement and invasion was not an appropriate model to tackle the Taliban. His decision to revise the strategy comes just weeks following the abrupt dismissal of Gen Stanley McChrystal.

Petraeus is reported to believe that the operation must be a broad-ranging counter-insurgency campaign, involving more troops working with local militias. The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said on Saturday that the US-led strategy in southern Afghanistan was undergoing sweeping changes.