Afghan plan needs time despite violence

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 17 (UPI) -- The head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said despite the ongoing insurgency's aggressiveness, clearing out the militants requires time and patience.

Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, recently appointed commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said that the International Security Assistance Force operations are going well and has called the intensity of the insurgency the result of a greater presence of coalition troops in more areas of Afghanistan.

McChrystal said the strategy to shape, clear, hold and build requires patience in order to succeed and that clearing out the Taliban and other militants from the volatile Helmand province in southern Afghanistan takes time, a Defense Department news release said.

McChrystal stressed the need for ISAF to focus on the hold-and-build aspects of the counterinsurgency strategy.

"The thing that's really going to be different here is our commitment to hold and build, so I do not leave an area," McChrystal said in a statement.

"In my view, it's the most significant thing."