Bulk of US troops in Afghanistan to be brought under NATO command

Brussels - The bulk of United States troops in Afghanistan is to be brought under NATO command, ending the separation between their Enduring Freedom mission and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a top military official said Tuesday. Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, ISAF's top communication strategist in Afghanistan, said the move was part of the new strategy of ISAF's commander, US General Stanley McChrystal, who also heads Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).

"OEF has been brought under NATO command. There must be unity of effort, unity of command," Smith told journalists at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.

The official strongly rejected claims that the decision came "out of concern over continued civilian casualties," as suggested by an article Monday in the New York Times, which contained quotes from an interview with McChrystal.

"It had nothing to do with it," Smith insisted, saying the move was necessary to ensure that "the elements on the battlefield are not working on cross-purposes."

Smith added that the reorganization had been ordered not by McChrystal but by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates "two or three weeks ago," well before he traveled to Kabul on an impromptu visit on March 8.

The technical details were still in the process of being worked out, he added.

Only the most politically sensitive parts of Enduring Freedom's mission, including detention of insurgents and special operations to hunt down top Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, are to remain under separate US Army control, Smith said.

NATO officials said that in practice, out of 30,000 US troops under OEF, around 21,000 are expected to be shifted under ISAF, which currently fields just under 90,000 soldiers from 44 nations.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314373,bulk-of-us-troops-in-afghanistan-to-be-brought-under.html.