US seeks to play down Panetta's Afghan comments

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Thursday played down Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's comments that the United States could end its combat role in Afghanistan next year, remarks that surprised allies in Europe and Kabul, as well as US lawmakers.

Panetta, who is meeting with fellow NATO defense chiefs in Brussels, said on Wednesday that the goal was for US troops in Afghanistan to step back from a fighting role in Afghanistan by mid- to late 2013. Instead, they would be in an "advise-and-assist" and training capacity, he said.

US officials strenuously denied the defense secretary's remarks represented a shift in Washington's approach to the 10-year-old war, saying the timetable was in line with a previous NATO agreement to transfer all security tasks to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

"This was an assessment of what could happen within the context of the stated policy of NATO, which is to transfer the security lead to the Afghan security forces by 2014, and within that frame, within that timeline, the transition will take place," White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a news briefing.

"That's what Secretary Panetta was referring to," Carney told reporters.

Still, Carney left the door open for an earlier troop change.

"Within the context of transfer by the end of 2014, it is certainly possible - and if possible, therefore desirable - to ... have that transition take place earlier. But it is not an announcement of a new policy," he said.

US lawmakers expressed surprise at Panetta's remarks during a previously scheduled House of Representatives Intelligence Committee hearing, repeatedly questioning CIA Director David Petraeus about them.

"It was a surprise to me," Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said. "It is a departure."

Rogers said he was told by a senior official that Panetta's comments were probably the truth, but revealed too early. "I will tell you a senior official told me that he may have gotten ahead of the headlights," he said.

Petraeus sought to play down the comments from Panetta, his predecessor at the CIA, saying they had been "overanalyzed".

The CIA chief said the policy previously adopted by the NATO-led international coalition and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai had called for all security tasks to be transitioned to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

"If you're going to have it completed totally by the end of 2014, obviously somewhere in 2013 you have had to initiate that in all of the different locations so that you can complete the remaining tasks," Petraeus said.

Reuters