Karzai: Afghan troops to assume more control

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday announced details of the first stage of a plan to give Afghan forces more authority, saying that his countrymen understand "it is their responsibility to protect this soil."

Under the plan, Afghan forces will assume the nominal lead for ensuring the security of three relatively stable provinces and four cities in July.

The beginning of the handover will coincide with the scheduled start of the U.S. military pullout, which commanders have said will be slow and gradual.

The Afghan government and NATO officials say they want the transition to be complete by the end of 2014, when the Obama administration hopes the United States will end its combat mission in Afghanistan.

The transition is taking place at a time of deepening concern about the toll the 10-year war is taking on civilians and amid uncertainty about the prospect of reaching a negotiated truce with the Taliban and other armed groups.

The government intends to assume formal control first over the provinces of Panjshir, north of Kabul, and Bamian, to the northwest. Both have remained relatively safe in recent years, even as security has deteriorated sharply elsewhere in the country.

Karzai said Afghan authorities will take primary responsibility this summer for security in Lashkar Gah, the capital of volatile Helmand province, in the south; Herat, the capital of a western province of the same name; Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of the northern province of Balkh; and Mehterlam, the capital of Laghman province in the east.

Karzai also named Kabul province, which includes the national capital, as one of the areas to be subject to transition, even though it has long been under Afghan control.

NATO and Afghan officials worry the transition plan could turn the designated areas into targets as insurgents seek to undermine the government's attempt to show it is ready to assume more control. Those concerns stem partly from the example of Iraq, where provinces handed over to Iraqi control came under attack.

The president used his speech, delivered at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan in Kabul, to urge insurgents to lay down their arms.

Addressing the Taliban, Karzai said, "There is a place for those who are willing to live in peace and brotherhood."

The president said he understood and acknowledged the litany of grievances that have emboldened the insurgency. "We know that not all of the people who have taken up arms against their country are terrorists," Karzai said.