FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2013 file photo a member of the Afghan special forces, left, briefs soldiers after a training exercise on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. A senior U.S. commander said Saturday, March 30, 2013 that American special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan?s Nirkh district to local Afghan commandos -- meeting a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces withdraw from the district after allegations that their Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2013 file photo a member of the Afghan special forces, left, briefs soldiers after a training exercise on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. A senior U.S. commander said Saturday, March 30, 2013 that American special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan?s Nirkh district to local Afghan commandos -- meeting a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces withdraw from the district after allegations that their Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 2, 2009, file photo U.S. Army soldiers from 7th Special Forces Group, based at an Afghan Commando training facility, fire their pistols at a range at their base in Afghanistan's Wardak Province. A senior U.S. commander said Saturday, March 30, 2013 that American special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan?s Nirkh district to local Afghan commandos -- meeting a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces withdraw from the district after allegations that their Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, March 16, 2013 file photo Afghan men chant "U.S. special operations forces out!" as several hundred demonstrators marched to the Afghan parliament building in Kabul, Afghanistan. A senior U.S. commander said Saturday, March 30, 2013 that American special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan?s Nirkh district to local Afghan commandos -- meeting a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces withdraw from the district after allegations that their Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2013 file photo members of Afghan special forces conduct a training exercise using actors on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. A senior U.S. commander said Saturday, March 30, 2013 that American special operations forces have handed over their base in eastern Afghanistan?s Nirkh district to local Afghan commandos -- meeting a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces withdraw from the district after allegations that their Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? U.S. special operations forces handed over their base in a strategic region of eastern Afghanistan to local Afghan commandos on Saturday, a senior U.S. commander said. The withdrawal from Nirkh district meets a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces leave the area after allegations that the Americans' Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there.
"We're coming out of Nirkh," said Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas, the top U.S. special operations commander in Afghanistan, in an interview with The Associated Press.
Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Wardak province outside Kabul in which Nirkh is located, confirmed that U.S. special operations forces withdrew and were replaced by a joint Afghan security forces team.
The transfer of authority ends a controversial chapter in which Karzai accused U.S. troops and an interpreter working with them of torture, kidnapping and summary execution of militant suspects in Nirkh ? charges U.S. officials including top commander in Afghanistan Gen. Joseph Dunford firmly denied.
The incident shows the larger struggle of Karzai's government to assert its authority over security matters, even as its green security forces try to assume control of much of the country from coalition forces on a rushed timeline, ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of most of coalition forces by December 2014.
Karzai had originally demanded the U.S. special operations forces pull out from the entire province, a gateway and staging area for Taliban and other militants for attacks on the capital Kabul. But he scaled down his demands to just the single district after negotiations with Dunford and other U.S. officials.
"President Karzai was specific, it's only for Nirkh, that was a provocative point," Thomas said. "American special operations forces are integral in the defense of Wardak from now until the foreseeable future."
U.S. commandos will also continue to visit the Afghan team in Nirkh.
"We're going to support them from a distance," Thomas said. "The reality is there was such a groundswell of support (from locals) in Wardak after the initial allegations that we're keeping several teams down there to work with the Afghan security forces for the future, with an idea that we'll transition over time."
The Americans are paired with and live alongside locally recruited and trained teams known as Afghan local police. Thomas said most of the local police will be paired with Afghan security forces by the end of the summer, with the Americans making occasional visits as they will do in Nirkh, to assess whether they need logistic or other support.
One Wardak government official expressed relief that the agreement crafted with Karzai did not mean the complete pullout of U.S. forces from the province, saying that local officials were worried their new forces would not yet be able to keep hardcore insurgents out of the area.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because his comments run counter to public statements made by Karzai, that the Afghan security forces are ready for complete independence in Wardak.
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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.
Follow Kimberly Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KimberlyDozier
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