US to elevate special forces' role in Afghanistan

The US military is planning to elevate the role of special operations forces in Afghanistan as it shifts away from a combat focus to a mission that places greater emphasis on advising Afghan forces and raids to kill top insurgent leaders, senior US officials said.

The US military is planning to elevate the role of special operations forces in Afghanistan as it shifts away from a combat focus to a mission that places greater emphasis on advising Afghan forces and raids to kill top insurgent leaders, senior US officials said.

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Initial steps in that direction are likely to take place in the next few months, when the Pentagon is expected to create a new two-star command that would oversee the entire special operations effort in Afghanistan. The new command would be led by Maj Gen Tony Thomas, the deputy commander of the military's Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the military's elite counterterrorism forces around the world.

The new special operations command in Afghanistan could eventually take over responsibility for the day-to-day war effort as US troop levels drop in the country and as the United States moves away from its traditional combat role to an effort focused primarily on training and advising Afghan forces.

The plan, which is still being considered, would mark a major change in the war effort, built around big American conventional units working alongside Afghan army and police forces to clear areas of insurgents and re-establish Afghan governance. In many aspects, it resembles a plan advocated by Vice President Biden in 2009 to focus US efforts on training Afghan forces and killing high-level insurgent leaders.

Defence secretary Leon E Panetta referred to some of the changes last week when he said that the US hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by the middle of next year, more than a year earlier than scheduled.

In an exclusive partnership with The Washington Post.