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Afghan President Announces NATO Pullout Areas

   VOA News  March 22, 2011

Photo: Reuters

   Afghan  President  Hamid  Karzai,  speaking  at  the  ational Military
   Academy in the capital, Kabul, March 22, 2011.

   Afghan  President  Hamid  Karzai said on Tuesday that NATO forces soon
   will  transfer  security  control  in seven areas around the nation to
   Afghan  security forces, marking the first phase of a planned handover
   of security from foreign forces to their Afghan counterparts.
   During  a  speech, Karzai announced the security transfer is scheduled
   to being in July.

   The  areas  transferred  include  the relatively peaceful provinces of
   Bamiyan  and  Panshir, along with areas around Kabul, parts of Laghman
   province  in  the  east,  Herat  in the west and Mazer-e-Sharif in the
   north.   Afghan  forces  will  also take over security control in the
   volatile Helmand province city of Lashkar Gah.
   NATO has endorsed an Afghan timeline calling for foreign combat forces
   to  leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.  The United States has said
   it will begin pulling out some its forces this July.
   Violence  continued  Tuesday,  with  NATO  reporting that an insurgent
   attack  in  eastern Afghanistan had killed two international coalition
   service members.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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