Petraeus Completes Afghan Security Transition Initiative

The top US military official commanding foreign forces in Afghanistan has completed work on new guidelines for handing over some security duties to Afghan forces in the months ahead, reports say

The guidelines predict that as some troops leave the country after their areas of responsibility are secured, others could be reassigned new missions within Afghanistan.

The security transition guidelines acknowledge that progress has been slow, and that Afghan forces are nowhere near ready to take over the mission across the country.

A number of foreign officials, who discussed the planning on the condition of anonymity, said that the guidelines developed by General Petraeus did not represent a shift in the Obama administration's strategy for Afghanistan.

"It has everything to do with getting the principles and concepts for transition right. The transition pace will, after all, be conditions-based, and this reflects that," the New York Times quotes a senior NATO military official in Kabul, as saying.

Currently, the number of Afghan National Army reaches to 130,000 and a top Afghan military official in Defence Ministry has commented that Afghan forces have the potential to secure a number of province.