US reports 'progress' in Afghan war

Review says military progress has been made against resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda. Last Modified: 16 Dec 2010 12:00 GMT

Despite talk of military progress, high rates of poverty continue to persist in Afghanistan [GALLO/GETTY] Barack Obama, the US president's expansion of the war in Afghanistan has eroded the power of the al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, according to his government's review of the long-running conflict. The findings released on Thursday ensure that Obama will stay the course, with US troops to remain at war through 2014. US troops will begin to leave Afghanistan in July, according to the report, the same timeline that Obama promised one year ago and has upheld in recent weeks. But the scope and pace of that withdrawal remain unclear, and both are expected to be modest, given the enormity of the security and governance challenges in Afghanistan. The United States and its NATO allies hope to turn control of the Afghan conflict to the nation's own forces by the end of 2014, a timeline endorsed in the new review. But Obama has previously said that he still envisions an enduring US role in Afghanistan. Pessimistic view In Depth Reports reveal Afghan war details Losing the east in Afghanistan Leaked Afghan war files condemned Afghan forces' flaws exposed On Wednesday, the White House released a five-page summary of the newly finished, classified evaluation of the war strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, ahead of the president's address on the report's findings on Thursday morning. As the details fliter through, two classified US intelligence reports on the region have offered a pessimistic view of the chances of success. The intelligence assessments, the New York Times newspaper reported on Wednesday, would seem at odds with claims from the defence department and White House officials that US and NATO troops are making progress against the Taliban. The National Intelligence Estimates (NIE), represent the consensus view of 16 domestic intelligence agencies without military input and are intended for congressional committees. The two separate documents, one dealing with Afghanistan and the other with neighbouring Pakistan, detail concerns that the US-led fight against the Taliban could fail unless Islamabad takes a much more active role along its border with Afghanistan. The reports suggest that recent military progress is undermined by a weak and corrupt Afghan government and Pakistan's reluctance to crackdown on rebels hiding on its side of the border. 'Gradually pushing' Obama has been to talk up progress on the eve of the release of the strategy review, which is expected to cement a timetable for gradual withdrawal and the handover of security to Afghan forces in 2014. In a letter to congressional leaders summarising US military operations overseas, he said US and NATO forces were "gradually pushing insurgents to the edges of secured population areas in a number of important regions, largely resulting from the increase in US forces over the past year". "US and ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] forces will continue to execute the strategy of clear-shape-hold-build, and transition, until conditions on the ground allow for the full transition of the lead in operations to the Afghan National Security Forces." Obama has sent an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan over the last year, boosting the number of foreign troops to about 150,000, in an attempt to turn the tide in the battle with the Taliban. Despite the troops surge, the Afghan conflict has over the last 18 months, seen the biggest increase in violence since fighting began nearly a decade ago Fighting in the country usually increases from spring after a winter lull, although there has been no sign yet of it slowing down this year, with military and civilian casualties at their highest level since the Taliban were ousted in late 2001. On Wednesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its aircraft had accidentally killed an Afghan civilian and wounded two children after a patrol came under attack in southern Helmand province on Tuesday. Civilian casualties caused by foreign forces have long caused friction between Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and his international allies, although the numbers caused by ISAF troops have fallen since the rules for using air strikes were tightened.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies