Panetta Says U.S. to End Afghan Combat Role as Soon as 2013
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
In a major milestone toward ending a decade of war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday that American forces would step back from a combat role there as early as mid-2013, more than a year before all American troops are scheduled to come home.
Mr. Panetta cast the decision as an orderly step in a withdrawal process long planned by the United States and its allies, but his comments were the first time that the United States had put a date on stepping back from its central role in the war. The defense secretary’s words reflected the Obama administration’s eagerness to bring to a close the second of two grinding ground wars it inherited from the Bush administration.
Promising the end of the American combat mission in Afghanistan next year would also give Mr. Obama a certain applause line in his re-election stump speech this year.
Special Operations Forces Rescue Hostages in Somalia
By Jim Garamone
Special operations forces rescued an American woman and Danish man who had been held captive in Somalia for three months, President Barack Obama announced early this morning.
Both are well and are in a secure location, and there were no American casualties in the operation.
Jessica Buchanan and Poul Thisted were working as part of a Danish demining group when Somali criminals kidnapped them near Galcayo, Somalia, on Oct. 25, according to a statement from Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. Galcayo is near the border with Ethiopia. There was no word where the two were held.
Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Rele ases A combined Afghan and coalition security force killed a Taliban leader and two of his associates during an operation in the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province today, military officials reported.
The leader, Khetab Gul, was responsible for a recent suicide car bomb attack in Nangarhar, officials said. He also constructed roadside bombs, planned attacks and distributed bomb-making materials to insurgents throughout the province.
During the operation, several armed insurgents barricaded themselves inside a building and fired at the security force, officials said. The force returned fire, killing Gul and two other insurgents.
The security force also confiscated firearms during the operation.
Special Report - 02/02/12
