First Afghan security handover phase finishes

Nato troops handed over security responsibility to Afghan forces in the north-eastern province of Panjshir on Sunday, capping an initial transition phase early after it was deemed a ceremony was not needed to mark Afghan control of districts around Kabul.
President Hamid Karzai announced in March that most of the districts in Kabul province, which shares a name with the country's capital city, would be among seven regions where the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would transition security control to Afghan forces in July.
But Ashraf Ghani, chairman of the security transition and a former Afghan finance minister, said on Sunday there would be no official handover ceremony for the Kabul districts because Afghan forces had effectively been responsible for the area since 2008 when ISAF handed over security control of Kabul city.
"Today is the last day of the transition in six areas and despite insurgents trying to disrupt the process, it ended with great success," Ghani said during the Panjshir province transition ceremony in the town of Parakh. Panjshir has been an anti-Taliban stronghold for more than a decade.
While Afghan forces have had control of Kabul city for the past three years, there are still several Nato bases in the area, as well as ISAF headquarters, and foreign troops have been called in to help Afghan forces on several occasions. The security handovers in the past week are the very first step in a slow process that aims to put the Afghan army and police in control across the country by the end of 2014.
Secrecy shrouded the first handover last Sunday of central Bamiyan province amid Taliban attack threats and in the shadow of the July 12 assassination of President Karzai's powerful but controversial brother Ahmad Wali Karzai. In the past week ISAF has also handed over the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, southern city of Lashkar Gah, western city of Herat and Mehtar Lam district in eastern Laghman province.