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Panetta: US aims to halt combat role in Afghanistan in 2013

By REUTERS

FEBRUARY 2, 2012 00:41

BRUSSELS - The United States plans to shift out of a combat role next year in Afghanistan, focusing instead on training and advising local forces, the US defense secretary said on Wednesday.

"Our goal is to complete all of that transition in 2013 and then hopefully by mid- to the latter part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise-and-assist role," Leon Panetta told reporters en route to a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"And 2013 becomes an even more critical year, more critical because we'll be going into the final transitions ... and those will be some of the most difficult," Panetta said.

While the United States and its NATO partners have already agreed to formally hand control for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, Panetta's comments appear to mark the first time the Pentagon has suggested it will formally shift its role in Afghanistan as early as 2013.

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