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Petraeus: ’Right strategy’ in place in Afghanistan

15 October 2010 20:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan said Friday he is confident that the tough fight is headed in the right direction, and he backs the president’s peace moves, APA reports quoting CNN.
"No one should have any illusions about how difficult the fight will continue to be as we and our Afghan partners strive to bring peace to a nation that has suffered through more than 30 years of continuous war," Gen. David Petraeus said in a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute.
"Still, I believe that we now have the right strategy in place."
He cited military efforts to improve security in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar and Helmand provinces and focused on the importance of increasing the size of the Afghan security forces.
He said there has been progress in literacy, health care, the infrastructure and the economy.
"The kind of developments we’ve seen, the ongoing efforts to establish an effective government, and the hard-fought but steady security gains all provide grounds to believe that our efforts in Afghanistan can achieve progress, and over time, together with the Afghan people, can enable accomplishment of our important objectives there," he said.
There have been reports of informal contact between members of the Taliban and the Afghan government, and Afghanistan has formed a High Peace Council devoted to pursuing reconciliation moves with militants. President Hamid Karzai said on CNN that unofficial talks have been taking place.
A source from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, who asked not to be named, said troops have been guaranteeing safe passage for those Taliban officials on their way to meetings.
"NATO and the United States both do support president Karzai’s initiatives in this regard, and the red lines he’s established, in terms of reconciliation: that any seeking to do that would have to lay down their weapons, renounce violence, cut their ties with transnational extremists, and accept the Afghan constitution. And that is the state of play right now," Petraeus said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also stated these principles for reconciliation in a TV interview on Thursday and noted that "it’s very early in the process."
"I am increasingly convinced that many of the lower-level Taliban, young men who, frankly, went to fight for the Taliban because they got paid more than they could make anywhere else, I believe that they are, in increasing numbers, laying down their arms and coming back into society," she said.
Petraeus was in London for meetings on Thursday with British officials about Afghan issues, including last week’s failed operation to rescue a British aid worker from kidnappers in Afghanistan.
He said learning how British aid worker Linda Norgrove died is his "personal priority." Norgrove, who had been held hostage since late last month, worked for DAI, an agency that provides various services to developing nations.
Petraeus on Friday again promised to get to the bottom of Norgrove’s death.
The initial report on the rescue mission by the troops who carried it out did not mention that they had thrown a grenade, but, Petraeus said, "it was very clear that there was a throwing motion and an explosion that followed that, and that a grenade had been employed."
"We will investigate to determine the specific facts in a joint and completely transparent U.S.-U.K. effort that will then be shared completely with the Norgrove family as soon as the results are established. And of course, there’s an issue of the autopsy that has to be conducted, that will be done here in the United Kingdom. My understanding is that will be undertaken very shortly. And that is a critical element of this, of course, because again, one cannot jump to conclusions."