House committee considers progress in Afghanistan

By the CNN Wire Staff

Afghans inspect the debris of a suicide bombing, including an overturned car, on the outskirts of Kandahar in April.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

House Armed Services Committee to examine progress made in Afghanistan
President Obama has added 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan since December
Obama administration plans to begin troop withdrawal in Afghanistan in July 2011

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Washington (CNN) -- The House Armed Services Committee is taking stock of the Obama administration's new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

The hearing is evaluating how security and stability has changed since President Obama began adding troops into the central Asian nation.

The Obama administration has poured about 30,000 additional U.S. troops into Afghanistan since December, bringing the number of American troops to about 100,000. An additional 40,000-plus NATO troops are also in the conflict.

Allied and Afghan troops recently retook the southern city of Marjah from the Taliban and have been expected to move on the Kandahar region in June.

Those plans have been met with apprehension by Afghan leaders, including President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai has told tribal leaders in the Kandahar region, the Taliban's traditional stronghold, that he would hold back the NATO offensive until he had their backing. His insistence on that support has frustrated the White House.

Karzai told a gathering of tribal leaders in early April that the U.S.-led alliance would not move against Taliban fighters in Kandahar "until you say we can." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters a day later that Karzai's remarks were "genuinely troubling."

The surge in troop strength is one of several elements in the administration's counterinsurgency strategy, which also seeks to combat the opium trade in the region and give farmers a profitable crop they can raise and support their familes with.

The goal of the Obama plan is to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in July 2011 in an effort to force Afghan officials to take the lead on ensuring their country's security.

Karzai has said his forces will take the security lead in five years, despite doubts among military analysts that the Afghan army and police will be able to provide a sufficient number of trained forces in that period.