From the AP:  A major reorganization of allied forces in Afghanistan will centralize both American and other foreign troops under the direct command of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the senior U.S. and NATO commander in the theater…

Vice Adm. Greg Smith, the top military spokesman in Afghanistan, said the reorganization would integrate most of the 20,000 U.S. troops currently serving in the eastern part of the country under separate command, known as Operation Enduring Freedom, into the 100,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

NATO officials stressed that this will create a streamlined and simplified command structure, since both forces already are under McChrystal’s operational control…

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates approved the reorganization before he visited Kabul last week, Smith said. U.S. Marine Corps personnel, currently under the U.S. Central Command, also will now report directly to McChrystal…

Smith said that once the reorganization is complete, only small special forces detachments and a prison guard unit will remain outside the NATO command structure.

"NATO did not want to take over issue of detention, which remains in U.S. hands," Smith told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. (photo:  F. Julian Carroll/U.S. Navy)

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