BBC News - Afghanistan: Leon Panetta signals end to US combat role

The US will wind seek to down combat operations in Afghanistan during 2013, more than a year before a deadline for withdrawal, the defence secretary says.

Insurgents infiltrating Afghan security forces can often remain undetected

Speaking while travelling to a Nato summit, Leon Panetta said the US hoped to switch to a role training and supporting Afghan forces.

His comments are the first time a senior US official has given a timetable for transition.

Some 68,000 troops are due to remain in Afghanistan after the end of 2012.

There are currently some 99,000 US troops in the country, with 22,000 scheduled to return home during this year.

Until now, though, there had been now word on how the Pentagon planned to manage the main bulk of the drawdown, committing only to a full withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014.

"Hopefully by mid- to the latter part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advice and assist role," Mr Panetta said en route to Brussels, site of the Nato summit.

He stressed that dangers would remain while Afghan forces were trained up to take over security duties in many areas currently wracked by conflict.

"It's still a pretty robust role that we'll be engaged in. It's not going to be a kind of formal combat role that we are now," he said. "That doesn't mean that we're not going to be combat-ready. We will be because we always have to be in order to defend ourselves."

President Barack Obama ordered a "surge" in US troops in Afghanistan in 2009 in an effort to seize and retain Taliban-controlled areas.

The US has fought in Afghanistan since shortly after 9/11 attacks of 2001, seeking to oust the Taliban for their role in harbouring al-Qaeda.

Plans for peace talks between the US and the Taliban are being made.

The group has so far insisted they will only talk to the US and other allies of Kabul, not the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai.

Amid concern in Nato states and a reluctance by some in Europe to commit more troops to the bitter conflict, Nato agreed at a Lisbon summit in November 2010 to hand over security duties to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Mr Panetta said the US would maintain an "enduring presence" in Afghanistan after its combat troops had come home, and said the 2014 deadline was a pan-Nato ambition that all member states were aiming to meet.

"We all went in here together and we'll all go out together, but we have to do it on the basis of a strong alliance and a strong commitment that was made in Lisbon," he said.

'Insider attacks'

Hours before Mr Panetta detailed plans to hand over combat responsibility to Afghan forces, the Pentagon revealed evidence that members of the country's developing army and security forces had carried out a growing number of "insider" attacks on US troops.

Attacks had risen sharply in the past two years, the Pentagon told a congressional committee. Of 42 attacks since 2007, 75% took place in the last two years.

Most attackers were acting alone, not carrying out insurgent orders, although some attackers were insurgents disguised as soldiers.

Lawmakers said the screening process for Afghan forces was "tragically weak" and called for more stringent vetting.

"The screening and vetting has been tragically weak in picking up signs of threats after the Afghans joined either the Afghan National Security Force, or a private security contractor,'' Congressman Howard McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said.

Defence officials said some improvements had already been made after an attack in March 2011 killed two US soldiers and wounded four others.

The military has asked commanders on the ground in Afghanistan to carry out random checks on private companies that provide security for US soldiers, as well as cross-checking biometric data against watch lists.

But Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Gary Motsek said that while the attacks were unacceptable he did not think they could be eliminated altogether.