NATO's governing body approved a plan on Tuesday to reorganize the alliance's command structure in Afghanistan by setting up a new headquarters for the day-to-day operation of the war, the Associated Press reported. NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the new Intermediate Joint Headquarters will now be commanded by U.S. Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, who participated in Tuesday's deliberations by NATO's North Atlantic Council governing body by videoconference with his boss, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. The new command structure will control the 64,000 soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, about half of them American. It will not control a separate U.S. contingent of about 10,000 soldiers that is deployed along the border with Pakistan.
