Fight against Taliban making progress: Petraeus

Top US commander says he is optimistic about the course of the fight.

WASHINGTON: Coalition forces have halted the Taliban march in parts of Afghanistan, top US commander General David Petraeus said Tuesday, even though he warned their fragile success could still be undone.

In an upbeat assessment which contrasted with more skeptical comments from the US intelligence services, Petraeus said that four months before US troops begin to withdraw from the country he was optimistic about the course of the fight.

"The momentum achieved by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2005 has been arrested in much of the country and reversed in a number of important areas," Petraeus told US lawmakers.

Petraeus, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, said the progress has been achieved since US President Barack Obama poured thousands of reinforcements into the country in late 2009 to thwart the Taliban insurgency.

There are now 97,000 US troops on the ground fighting alongside 45,000 troops from Nato countries as part of the international coalition put in place after US-led troops ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001.

The progress made in the past months means the coalition would in the coming months begin transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces in many provinces, Petraeus said.

It would also help frame his recommendation "for commencement of the drawdown of the US surge forces in July."

"Although the insurgents are already striving to regain lost momentum and lost safe havens... we believe that we will be able to build on the momentum achieved in 2010 though that clearly will entail additional tough fighting," he added. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due soon to unveil which provinces will be among the first to be turned over to the control of Afghan security forces.

"The hard-fought achievements in 2010 and early 2011 have enabled the Joint Afghan-Nato Transition Board to recommend initiation this spring of transition to Afghan lead in several provinces," Petraeus said.

"However, while the security progress achieved over the past year is significant, it is also fragile and reversible," he warned.

Three towns -- Lashkar Gan in the south, Herat in the west, and Mazar-i-Sharif in the north -- as well as most of Kabul province, and central Bamiyan and northeastern Panjshir have been recommended to be among the first to transfer to Afghan control.

The coalition is also on track to train some 307,000 Afghan soldiers and police by October, Petraeus said, adding he had asked for funds to train 70,000 more security forces.

The aim is to prevent the war-torn country from once again becoming a haven for al Qaeda militants while strengthening Afghan institutions such as the army and police.

Nato countries have agreed that full responsibility for security should be handed over to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, allowing coalition troops to withdraw from the country. Petraeus made no reference in the hearing to the issue of corruption, or the frequent differences pitting him against Karzai. And he praised the tight cooperation with the Pakistani army to stop insurgents sneaking across the border.

"I've tried to provide realism," Petraeus said, even though his assessment differed from that of the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, who last week cast doubt on the Afghan government's ability to assume responsibility for running the country.

Meanwhile, Petraeus said planning was already underway for the future, saying "there's no question that governmental capacity is an area of strategic risk."

"We are also now beginning to look beyond 2014... as the United States and Afghanistan, and Nato and Afghanistan, discuss possible strategic partnerships," Petraeus said. "All of this is enormously reassuring to our Afghan partners and of considerable concern to the Taliban," he said.