WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (Saba) -- The July 2011 deadline for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan is "conditions based" and could change depending on conditions on the ground, according to the top military commander overseeing U.
S. forces in the region on Sunday, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

"This is a date when a process begins, that is conditions based," U.S. General David Petraeus said in an interview on NBCs "Meet the Press." "And as the conditions permit we transit tasks to our Afghan counterparts and the security forces and in various governmental institutions and that enables a responsible drawdown of our forces," he added. In order to start transitioning troops out of Afghanistan by the deadline President Barack Obama has set, certain conditions are going to need to be met, Petraeus said. Leaders in Afghanistan will have to decide how much a role members of the militant Islamic Taliban will have in the countrys government, Petraeus said. "I think that there can be low and midlevel reintegration and indeed some fracturing of the senior leadership that could be really defined as reconciliation," Petraeus said.

Petraeus said finding Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden remains a top priority for the U.S. He added that bin Laden "remains an iconic figure and I think capturing or killing (him) is still a very, very important task for all of those who are engaged in counter-terrorism around the world.

Petraeus said bin Laden is probably in an extremely remote mountainous area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it took him several weeks to send out "a congratulatory message out or a message of condolence".

Saba