Gen. David Petraeus, the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, said special-forces operations against militants there are about four times more frequent than at the peak of the Iraq war.
“We are at the absolutely highest operational tempo,” said Petraeus, who replaced Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of the U.S.- and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan two months ago. Operations have climbed in the past two weeks, he said.
In the past 24 hours, eight raids netted three targeted people and may have nabbed four more still to be confirmed, Petraeus told reporters traveling Friday with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen in Kabul.
Special units, which draw on intelligence to target and capture or kill militant leaders, conducted 4,002 missions in Afghanistan during the three months ended Aug. 30, an average of more than 40 a day. At the height of the “surge” of troops in Iraq, forces conducted about 10 a day, Petraeus said. Bloomberg News
