Boosting the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan should allow NATO to begin gradually transferring security responsibility to Afghan forces, starting with 10-15 areas next year, Reuters cited the alliance as saying today. Speaking after U.S. President Barack Obama announced a plan to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he expected non-U.S. participants in the NATO-led Afghan mission to provide at least 5,000 extra troops and possibly a few thousand more. Obama"s plan also calls for U.S. troops levels to be scaled down in 2011 as Afghan security forces gradually take over responsibility, but Rasmussen stressed this was not an exit strategy, but one of gradual transition to Afghan leadership. "Based on what we know about the security situation in different parts of Afghanistan, I find it realistic that we will be able to transfer lead responsibility to the Afghans in 10 to 15 areas and districts next year," he told a news briefing. But the transition could only happen if conditions were met. "We will not leave unless we feel sure the Afghan security forces can actually take on responsibility for that specific district or province," he said. Afghanistan has 34 provinces and several hundred districts. NATO plans a big increase in training of the Afghan army and police to allow them to take over security duties, but the process is expected to take years. U.S. and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal has recommended more than doubling Afghan forces to 400,000, which officials say would take until at least 2013.
