Top US commander in Afghanistan steps down

KABUL, Afghanistan — The top American general in Afghanistan stepped down Monday, a symbolic moment as the United States nears the end of its 20-yearold war and Taliban fighters sweep across the country.

At a muted ceremony at U.S. and NATO military headquarters in Kabul, Gen. Austin Miller ended his nearly three-year term as commander. His duties will be filled by two officials. Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, who recently served as operations director for the Defense Intelligence Agency, will take charge of the security mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. He will report to Gen. Kenneth

McKenzie, the head of the military’s Central Command, who will take over the broader military mission in Afghanistan.

“It’s important for me to say farewell,” said Miller, who is expected to retire after a 38-year career in the U.S. Army.

The ceremony, which lasted less than an hour, was attended by high-ranking

Afghan officials, including Abdullah Abdullah, who is leading peace negotiations.

“Our job is now just not to forget,” Miller said.

McKenzie, who arrived Monday in Kabul, spoke afterward, assuring those present that the Americans were not abandoning the Afghan people in such dire times.

“It’s not the end of the story,” McKenzie said. “It’s the end of a chapter.”

Vasely brings a background in special operations and intelligence missions, and used to be a member of SEAL Team 6, the secretive U.S. Navy unit best known for killing Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida.

The ceremony came on the heels of a Taliban military offensive that has taken swaths of the country, sometimes without firing a shot. The campaign, which has displaced tens of thousands and wounded or killed hundreds of civilians, is a constant indicator of the U.S.-led mission’s inability to groom an effective Afghan military despite spending billions of dollars on the effort since the U.S. invasion in 2001.