BREAKING: Panetta says U.S. Combat in Afghanistan to End Next Year

On his way to a NATO defense meeting in Brussels, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told reporters the U.S. now plans to end combat operations in Afghanistan by next year. It is the first time an administration official has said that an end to direct U.S. involvement in combat could come that soon. In his policy speech on Afghanistan last summer, President Barack Obama said the transition to Afghan troops would take place in 2014.