Petraeus sees short-term rise in Afghan violence

Washington/Kabul: Violence in Afghanistan and turmoil within the Karzai government are likely to rise in the short term, General David Petraeus said on Wednesday, calling on US lawmakers to reserve judgment on President Barack Obama's new war strategy for a full year.

The comments by Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, came as Defence Robert Gates visited US commanders in Afghanistan, promising that Obama's order to send 30,000 extra troops would give them what they need to fight the Taliban.

"We have all the pieces coming together to be successful here," Gates said.

All of the additional troops are expected to be sent to the war zone by the summer or fall, aiming to reverse the momentum of Taliban militants and allow for a gradual US withdrawal starting in July 2011, according to Obama's strategy.

Lieutenant General William Caldwell, head of the US and NATO training mission in Kabul, said Washington had set a goal to expand the Afghan security forces by 50 per cent before US troops begin to pull out but he acknowledged the goal was probably out of reach.

Petraeus, in charge of drawing down forces in Iraq and overseeing the surge of US troops in Afghanistan, said he expected increased fighting in the spring and the summer.

He said President Hamid Karzai's expected moves to combat corruption likely would result in "greater turmoil within the government as malign actors are identified and replaced."

"It will be important, therefore, to withhold judgment on the success or failure of the strategy in Afghanistan until next December," Petraeus told a Senate committee.

He expressed his full support for Obama's plan and called success in Afghanistan "necessary and attainable."

But Petraeus, who in his previous role as the top Iraq commander oversaw a surge of US forces in 2007 credited with helping pull that country back from the brink, cautioned that progress in Afghanistan would be slower than in Iraq.

The US now has about 68,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.