General lauds Pakistani military campaign

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Pakistan's anti-insurgency campaign has helped the U.S. effort to "degrade the extremist groups" along the Afghan-Pakistan border, a top U.S. commander said.

Speaking at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday, Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, lauded the Pakistani military's monthslong campaign against its domestic extremists, now focused in South Waziristan.

"One of the most important developments over the past year has been the impressive determination of Pakistan's efforts against extremists that threaten the stability of the Pakistani state," Petraeus said, an American Forces Press Service release said.

He said the offensive in the past 10 months has "significantly degraded Pakistani Taliban groups," which "is an important step forward and does facilitate our efforts to degrade the extremist groups in the border region and to defeat al-Qaida."

The general also told the committee achieving success against extremists in Afghanistan is attainable but the mission will be challenging.

Success "is of enormous importance, and it is attainable," he said, adding "the challenges are great."

Petraeus, the architect of the Iraqi surge, said he believes President Barack Obama's Afghan strategy to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops will "enable us to make important progress in several critical tasks" -- reversing the Taliban's momentum, increasing the capabilities and numbers of Afghan security forces, improving Afghan governance and setting conditions for the start of the reduction in U.S. combat forces in July 2011.