President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday announced details of the first stage of a plan to give Afghan forces more authority, saying his countrymen “don’t want foreigners to take responsibility for security anymore.”
Under the plan, Afghan forces will assume the nominal lead for security of two relatively secure provinces and five 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 hope the transition will 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 happening 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 first provinces the government intends to assume formal control over are Panjshir, north of Kabul and Bamyan, northwest of the capital. Both have remained relatively safe in recent years, even as security has deteriorated sharply in other parts of the country.
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