Petraeus Says Taliban Momentum 'Reversed' Published August 23, 2010 | FoxNews.com

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Petraeus Says Taliban Momentum 'Reversed'
Published August 23, 2010 | FoxNews.com

Gen. David Petraeus, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, speaks during a ceremony July 4 in Kabul. (AP Photo)
The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said in an interview Monday that the international troops he leads in the war have turned the tide on the Taliban's "momentum" there, but warned tough battles still lay ahead.

General David Petraeus also played down the prospect of a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops next year, repeating his insistence that a target of July 2011 was merely a "date when a process begins."

As the death toll of U.S. troops in Afghanistan rose again with the death of four soldiers on Sunday, Petraeus said the road ahead could be bloody but insisted foreign forces were making progress.

"The momentum that the Taliban have established over the course of recent years has been reversed in many areas and will be reversed in the other areas as well. This will entail tough fighting," he told the BBC.

The general also repeated his view that the Obama administration's date of July 2011 to start withdrawing U.S. troops would not herald a swift exit from the country.