Petraeus, credited with reversing a spiral toward civil war in Iraq, took over in Afghanistan a year ago after his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, was sacked by President Barack Obama for comments made in a magazine story. He is leaving the military to take over as director of the Central Intelligence Agency as part of a wider shake-up of senior U.S. security officials and takes over from Leon Panetta, the new U.S. defense secretary. Petraeus, who hands over to U.S. Marine Corps General John Allen, oversaw a "surge" of 30,000 extra U.S. forces which helped stop the momentum of a growing insurgency, especially in the Taliban heartland in the south. He led a similar escalation of forces that helped turn around the Iraq conflict in 2007-08.

 

However, despite gains in violent southern provinces during Petraeus’ year in charge, the Taliban-led insurgency is still far from quelled. Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 hit its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-led Afghan forces in 2001, with civilian and military casualties hitting record levels, and this year has followed a similar trend.

 

In an especially gruesome incident, two Afghans were beheaded in Afghanistan’s west Monday, villagers and police said. They were kidnapped along with 33 others last week for apparently supporting the Afghan government. Their beheaded bodies were sent back to their families.

 

In the south, the police chief of a district in Kandahar — the birthplace of the Taliban — and three other officers were killed by a roadside bomb, the provincial government said.

From NYT: Gen. David H. Petraeus handed over command of the Afghan war on Monday, leaving behind a country racked by deep political instability whose fledgling security forces are fighting a weakened but deadly insurgency that kills coalition troops and Afghan civilians and officials nearly every day.