Areas in Afghanistan in line to soon come under Afghan security include some districts in Helmand and Nimroz provinces, a U.S. commander said.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon through a video link from his Helmand province headquarters at Camp Leatherneck, Marine Corp. Maj. Gen. John A. Toolan Jr. said Lashkar Gah, the province's capital, is designated among the first to come under Afghan security next month.
The general also termed the security efforts of the past two years in other districts of the two provinces a "tremendous success".
"Many of those districts will be identified for transition in lead security in either the next tranche [segment] or the following tranche," the commander said.
Toolan, who took over in March, commands a force of 30,000 troops from the United States, United Kingdom, Estonia, Denmark, the Republic of Georgia, Bahrain and Tonga. The forces in Helmand and Nimroz work with the Afghan army's 215th Corps.
The general said his forces have been able to cut into the finances of the insurgents in the south by attacking their narcotics nexus.
Over the next year and through 2014, when Afghan forces are set to assume security responsibility for all of Afghanistan, coalition combat troops need to assume more of an advisory role to ensure the Afghans gain the experience they need, Toolan said.