KABUL, Afghanistan -- The 13-year NATO combat mission in Afghanistan formally ended Sunday with a ceremonial retirement of its green flag and a pledge by top officials of the U.S.-led coalition to remain reliable partners in Afghanistan's unfinished war against the Taliban and other militant groups.
Scores of Afghan and foreign officials gathered to witness the symbolic shift to a new, much smaller NATO assistance and training mission. The event was held in a basketball gym inside NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital and accompanied by a brass band and color guard.
"Our commitment to Afghanistan endures. ... We are not walking away," promised Gen. John Campbell, the U.S. commander of the outgoing International Security Assistance Force combat mission. He will lead the new NATO support mission, which technically begins at midnight Wednesday.
Campbell and other Western officials stressed that their chief function under the new mission, named Resolute Support, will be to advise, train and assist Afghan security forces. They said that a separate "non-NATO" contingent of U.S. forces will participate in force protection, logistical support and counterterrorism activities.
In a lengthy statement issued by a Taliban spokesman Sunday night, the insurgent group gloated at the final departure of a "haughty" superpower that "thought it had already won the war and that the Mujaheddin would never ... think of putting up a fight."
The statement said the NATO withdrawal was proof that "the infidel powers who thought they would turn Afghanistan into their strategic colony" had been "pushed to the brink of defeat."
The total number of international troops in Afghanistan, which peaked in 2009 at about 142,000, has gradually shrunk to about 17,000. Under Resolute Support, officials said, 12,500 to 13,500 NATO forces will remain in 2015, including almost 11,000 Americans. Twenty-eight NATO allies and 14 partner nations will contribute in different ways, the alliance said.
Both Western and Afghan officials at the event described the shift in upbeat terms. They praised the dedication and bravery of Afghan security forces, now numbering about 350,000, and predicted that the Afghans will continue to wage a strong fight against Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents on their own.
"Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement issued in Hawaii, where he is on vacation with his family.
Gen. Hans-Lothar Domrlose, a senior NATO official based in Brussels, said that Afghan forces have shown the "ability, will and confidence to defeat the enemy."
Afghans have mixed feelings about the drawdown of foreign troops.
"At least in the past 13 years we have seen improvements in our way of life -- freedom of speech, democracy, the people generally better off financially," said shopkeeper Gul Mohammad, 42.
But the soldiers are still needed "at least until our own forces are strong enough, while our economy strengthens, while our leaders try to form a government," he said.
The announcement comes as Taliban and other militants step up attacks across the nation in an attempt to overthrow the government led by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, who took office in September. The violence has killed and wounded about 10,000 civilians this year, according to the United Nations.
"The 13-year Afghan war of NATO failed to completely root out the Taliban and other militants from the country," Ahmad Saeed, a former Afghan diplomat to Pakistan, said Sunday. "The increased violence could threaten to overthrow some more remote districts of the government as a few districts are already under control of Taliban."
Since early November, Taliban forces have waged an unprecedented terror campaign in the capital and made steady inroads in several provinces, such as Helmand, where U.S. and British forces once held sway.
In addition, the deadly Dec. 11 siege of a military-run school in northwest Pakistan by Islamist militants has unleashed a flurry of action by Afghan, Pakistani and foreign forces, including U.S. drone strikes, in the volatile border area where both Afghan and Pakistani Taliban insurgents are active.
Early this month, the Obama administration said it will leave up to 1,000 more troops than originally planned in Afghanistan beyond year's end. Also, a change in the long delayed Bilateral Security Agreement, signed by Afghan officials in September and ratified by parliament in November, allows U.S. troops to engage in counterterrorism operations against the Taliban and other insurgents.
Three months after the installation of a national unity government composed of Ghani and top electoral rival Abdullah Abdullah, they have yet to form a Cabinet, leaving a leadership void in the defense and interior ministries as well as the police intelligence department.
At the transition ceremony Sunday, the only Afghan official to speak was the civilian national security adviser, Hanif Atmar. He expressed gratitude for the sacrifices made by NATO forces. More than 3,500 international troops died in Afghanistan.
"We recognize that you carried on the fight for us when we were not ready," he said. "We pray for the fallen, for your sons and daughters who died on our soil."
Atmar insisted that Afghan forces are now fully ready to defend their country, but he stressed that they cannot do it without foreign assistance. "We don't want or expect your support to be indefinite, but we need it now more than ever," he said.
In interviews Sunday, several Afghan security officials expressed similar concerns, saying their ground forces are motivated but poorly equipped and heavily reliant on foreign troops for air support in tough encounters with the insurgents.
This has been a deadly year for Afghanistan's security forces, with around 5,000 deaths recorded so far.
Desertion rates continue to be high, and Afghan officials say reducing casualties will be crucial to maintaining current force levels.
"We have been controlling security for the past year and a half, and we will continue to fight bravely, but the enemy knows we don't have the air force or helicopters, or enough artillery and heavy weapons," said Gen. Syed Malik, an army commander in Helmand. "We need those to lower our casualty rate. Once we have those, I assure you we will defend Afghanistan very well."
As Afghan forces assume sovereignty, the country's economic growth is near zero due to the reduction of the international military presence and other aid. The United States spent more than $100 million on reconstruction in Afghanistan, on top of the $1 trillion war.
International Security Assistance Force was set up after the U.S.-led invasion as an umbrella for the coalition of around 50 nations that provided troops and took responsibility for security across the country. It ends with 2,224 American soldiers killed, according to an Associated Press tally.
The mission was initially aimed at toppling the Taliban and rooting out al-Qaida following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Obama ordered a surge to drive the insurgents out of strategically important regions, notably in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban had its capital from 1996 to 2001.
Meanwhile, two teenage boys were killed late Saturday in the eastern Wardak province when a rocket was fired near a children's volleyball match, an official said. Another five children, ages 11 to 14, were wounded by shrapnel, said the governor's spokesman Attaullah Khogyani. He blamed the Taliban.
In Kapisa, also in the east, Gov. Abdul Saboor Wafa's office said eight insurgents were killed Saturday night in an army counterinsurgency operation.
Information for this article was contributed by Pamela Constable of The Washington Post, by Lynne O'Donnell, Amir Shah and Josh Lederman of The Associated Press and by Eltaf Najafizada and Del Quentin Wilber of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 12/29/2014