Petraeus Scraps Plan to Secure Kandahar

The International Herald Tribune and Daily Telegraph are reporting this morning that General David Petraeus “has decided that a full-scale military encirclement and invasion of Kandahar was not an appropriate model to tackle the Taliban”. Via the Daily Telegraph:

… Gen McChrystal had planned a summer conquest of the Taliban in Kandahar to reinvigorate the battle against the Taliban. But the operation has been repeatedly delayed by concerns that it would not adequately restore the confidence of city residents in the security forces.

Gen Petraeus is reported to believe that the operation must be a broad-ranging counter-insurgency campaign, involving more troops working with local militias. The plan he inherited was criticised for placing too much emphasis on targeted assassinations of key insurgent leaders and not enough on winning over local residents. Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said yesterday that the US-led strategy in southern Afghanistan was undergoing sweeping changes…