NATO forces aim to take command of security and reconstruction work in southern Afghanistan early next year and hope to take responsibility for the entire country within two years, a top NATO officer said on Sunday. Lieutenant-General Ethem Erdagi, the Turkish commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said that despite the planned expansion, U.S. troops would continue to have a presence in the country, Reuters reported. His comments came amid rising violence in the south and east of Afghanistan, and across the border in Pakistan, where U.S., Afghan and Pakistani forces have killed more than 60 suspected foreign militants and Taliban insurgents in the last three days ahead of Afghan parliamentary elections in September. "We are talking about expanding to the south in the spring ... then east," Erdagi told a Turkish media team visiting Turkey's troops in Afghanistan. "Once the conditions are established, NATO will take full responsibility for all of Afghanistan probably within 1-1/2 years, or at the latest, two years," he said. "When NATO assumes responsibility for all regions, a certain number of U.S. forces will remain here," Erdagi added. --More 2217 Local Time 1917 GMT
