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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Weekend Edition Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Petraeus says Taliban weaker in Afghan south By HEIDI VOGT,Associated Press - Tuesday, January 11 Send IM Story Print LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – NATO's top commander in Afghanistan said a recent pledge by a southern Afghan tribe to stand up to the Taliban shows the military push in the country's most violent region is making headway and stifling the insurgents' "central nervous system." U.S. Gen. David Petraeus told The Associated Press Monday in the southern city of Lashkar Gah that a shift in thinking by the Afghan government and NATO means that the tribe's risky move is being embraced rather than ignored. And that brings the hope that others may follow suit, he said. Later Monday, Petraeus was on hand in Kabul to greet Vice President Joe Biden, who made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to assess progress toward the key objective of handing over security from international forces to Afghans. The White House said Biden, who was last here in January 2009, was to meet with President Hamid Karzai as well as U.S. troops. Petraeus spoke with the AP during a visit to the capital of Helmand province, where he discussed last week's tribal pledge with provincial Gov. Gulab Mangal. He told the AP that the Taliban is losing sway in volatile Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the south. Petraeus said there is increasing dissension among the fighting ranks of the insurgency and that fighters are bristling at being ordered to battle through the winter by bosses sitting far away in Pakistan. Meanwhile, targeted strikes on midlevel leaders in Afghanistan have fractured the hierarchy, Petraeus said. "The sheer losses that they've sustained are tremendous. That in and of itself is very significant and it's caused enormous stress on the central nervous system of the command and control structure," he said. A prime indicator of this success, Petraeus said, is the announcement by the Alikozai tribe that they would halt insurgent attacks and expel foreign fighters from one of the most violent spots in the country _ Helmand's Sangin district. The expansion of both NATO and Afghan forces in the region has made such a move much more tenable that it would have been a year ago, he said. "It has pushed out the security bubble," Petraeus said, adding "2010 was a pretty bumper year for Helmand province." A year ago, Obama approved a troop surge of 30,000 forces, most of whom went to the south to try to beat back Taliban forces from their traditional strongholds. The surge of forces in the south is seen as key to bolstering security enough that Afghan forces can take charge, which would in turn allow U.S. and NATO forces to draw down troops. The Obama administration has promised to start pulling troops out in July, meaning that Petraeus has only a few more months of operations before he has to start deciding where he can cut back. The true test of recent progress will likely come just as the drawdown begins. Fighting typically lessens in the winter months in Afghanistan, when snows block fighters from traveling over mountain passes from Pakistan, then picks up again in the late spring and early summer. And there are still plenty of hurdles ahead for NATO troops in the south. The area continues to be the most violent in the country, with daily announcements of coalition deaths. More than 20 Marines have been killed in Sangin since mid-October, when the U.S. took over the district from British forces. In an end-of-year review of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, the Obama administration said that while Taliban momentum has been stopped or reversed in some areas of Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province, "gains remain fragile and reversible." And the surge does not appear to have decreased the number of insurgent fighters. A NATO official said this week that the alliance continues to estimate about 25,000 fighters in the country _ the same number as a year ago. And so Petraeus and his team are doing their best to build rapidly on the successes they've had. NATO quickly pledged to support the Alikozai tribe by bringing in schools and finishing a key road in the area. Petraeus and the provincial governor spoke for nearly an hour, mostly about the Alikozai deal and what could be done to strengthen the hand of the elders and possibly get other tribes in the area to make similar pledges. Success is far from guaranteed. Disenchanted Alikozai tried to rebel against the Taliban in 2007 but failed because of a lack of resources and coalition help. And a similar move by the Shinwari tribe in eastern Afghanistan last year was at first lauded as a major step forward by U.S. commanders until the Afghan government turned against the idea, saying that NATO was undermining its authority by working directly with the elders. "That was an earlier time. That was back in the exploration stages," Petraeus said, noting that Karzai has since set up a formal reintegration process to accommodate those who want to realign themselves with the government. He said the growth of the Afghan security forces has made it easier to support those who do take a stand. Petraeus kept to a typically fast-paced schedule Monday. He met with the foreign minister of Estonia in the morning before rushing to board a helicopter for a quick ride to an airstrip, where a military plane flew his team to Lashkar Gah. Once there, they met with officials from the British-led provincial reconstruction team and then took armored vehicles into downtown to visit Mangal. He kept coffee at hand and used the travel time to continue consultations with advisers and officials. On returning to Kabul, he rushed off to greet Biden. 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