Top U.S. and NATO officials are downplaying comments by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggesting an end to the combat mission in Afghanistan next year. CIA Director David Petraeus said the United States remains committed to ending the combat mission by the end of 2014. At a meeting in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also backed the later date.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen: “If anyone thinks that the ISAF mission will be completed by 2013, then I can declare that’s not the case. We stick to the road map that was outlined in Lisbon in November 2010, according to which the transition will continue until the end of 2014. But obviously, from now until then, you will see a gradual development of our operation.”