In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

By Paul Tait 
  
 KABUL (Reuters) - The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan from next July will begin with a general "thinning out" of forces rather than any large-scale drawdown, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces said on Tuesday. 
  
 Critics say U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy to begin pulling out troops has backfired, sending a signal to the Taliban that the United States was preparing to wind down at a time when U.S. and NATO forces were suffering record casualties. Five U.S. soldiers were killed on Tuesday, capping a bloody four days. 
  
 It has also alarmed Afghan leaders, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai last week saying the Taliban threat has not been eliminated and any timeline for withdrawal would only "invigorate" the Islamist insurgents. 
  
 U.S. commanders have since tried to allay fears the timeline would not represent a wholesale departure. 
  
 The withdrawal timetable however is certain to come under close scrutiny when NATO members meet in Lisbon in November and in a White House strategy review of the Afghan war in December, which Obama called for last year when he announced the July 2011 plan and 30,000 extra troops. 
  
 Petraeus said the last of those extra troops would be in place in "the next couple of days", taking the total number of foreign troops under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) umbrella in Afghanistan to almost 150,000. 
  
 He said guidelines had been drawn up for the transition and repeated the pace of withdrawals would depend on "conditions on the ground", mainly security and the readiness of Afghan forces. 
  
 "These guidelines recognise that this is a process, not an event, in other words it will typically represent a thinning out of ISAF forces, not a hand-off per se," Petraeus told Reuters and two other news agencies in Kabul. 
  
 "In some cases, that transition dividend, in other words the forces no longer required, will go home, in some other cases they may be reinvested in a contiguous area, let's say within the same province to address security issues in neighbouring districts." 
  
 NATO NERVOUS 
  
 He said the transition will likely "occur in districts initially rather than in entire provinces", adding this would likely not be possible in hard-fought areas. 
  
 The suggestion of transitions at the district level appeared to catch NATO slightly off guard. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said members had adopted documents based on responsibility being handed over province by province. 
  
 "But this does not leave out that we can transfer a more limited responsibility, for example security responsibility, district by district," he told reporters in Copenhagen. 
  
 There is nervousness among Washington's NATO allies, who are coming under increasing pressure from a sceptical public to get out of a war they are not winning. Rasmussen said on Monday he hoped NATO states would agree in Lisbon to start handing over security responsibility next year. 
  
 Petraeus reiterated areas of progress were being made despite increasing violence across Afghanistan. 
  
 "There's no question the Taliban are fighting back, but the toll on the Taliban leadership has been very hard," he said of recent campaigns in the south, east and north. 
  
 "I don't think anyone disagrees that the footprint of the Taliban has spread," Petraeus said. 
  
 Military deaths have hit record levels this year, with at least 485 killed so far in 2010, compared with 521 in 2009. 
  
 ISAF said five U.S. troops had been killed on Tuesday, along with another on Monday whose nationality was not given. At least 20 ISAF service members have been killed since Saturday. 
  
 OPINION SPLIT 
  
 Supporters of Obama's July 2011 timeline say it conveys a needed sense of urgency to Kabul that Afghans must quickly ramp up the size of their security forces for a gradual handover. 
  
 But the strategy has certainly split U.S. opinion, even among Obama's Democrats, and will come under close scrutiny during mid-term Congressional elections in November. 
  
 Karzai's credibility will also come under scrutiny, particularly after a fraud-marred presidential vote last year. 
  
 While he is not running, Karzai's leadership will be tested at a parliamentary election on September 18, as will his commitment to good governance and stamping out rampant corruption. 
  
 Petraeus stepped cautiously around questions about Karzai's leadership, saying advances had been made since last year's poll. ||||| A roadside bomb attack killed four U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the latest deaths in a particularly bloody spell that has left 18 service members dead since Saturday. 
  
 In this Aug. 9, 2010 photo, an Afghan Army soldier wounded in combat in a nearby district is treated by an American trauma doctor at the Role 3 Military Hospital, at Kandahar Air Base, in Kandahar province,... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this Aug. 25, 2010 photo, U.S. and Afghan Army soldiers on patrol in Zhari district, northeast of Kandahar city, southern Afghanistan. Since the war began, the countryside surrounding Kandahar has... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this Aug. 25, 2010 photo, U.S. and Afghan Army soldiers on patrol in Zhari district, northeast of Kandahar city, southern Afghanistan. Since the war began, the countryside surrounding Kandahar has... (Associated Press) 
  
 In this Aug. 26, 2010 photo, a U.S. and Afghan Army soldier man a guard tower at the jointly-operated Strongpoint Lakokhel, in Zhari district, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Thursday Aug.... (Associated Press) 
  
 No other details were given about the incident and the service members were not identified by name as is standard procedure. 
  
 The deaths bring this month's total to 53, still below the figure of 66 for July, the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. Another member of the international coalition whose nationality has not been released was killed Monday. 
  
 Almost all of the recent coalition deaths have come in southern and eastern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is most deeply entrenched and where fighting has been heaviest. 
  
 Those areas are also closest to the mountainous border with Pakistan, where insurgents maintain safe havens and training bases to instruct recruits, including foreign fighters, who are later infiltrated into Afghanistan. 
  
 NATO commanders have warned casualties will mount as coalition and Afghan forces enter areas under longtime Taliban control, particularly in the hard-line Islamic movement's spiritual heartland of Kandahar province. The NATO force swelled this month to more than 140,000 _ including 100,000 Americans _ with the arrival of the last of the reinforcements that President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan in a bid to turn the tide of the nearly 9-year war. 
  
 Also Tuesday, the coalition said it killed two insurgents and wounded a third in an airstrike Monday on a Taliban commander in charge of logistics in Kandahar, including the coordination of homemade bomb attacks. 
  
 A number of Taliban and allied Haqqani Network commanders were also detained in operations Monday, including one recently returned from teaching bomb-making techniques in Pakistan, NATO said. 
  
 In Zabul province bordering Kandahar, insurgents on Monday night ambushed a convoy carrying food and other supplies, killing two private security guards and wounding five others, provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar said. |||||
Four US troops were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan today, bringing the American death toll to 21 since Friday. The US death toll for August now stands at 53, almost all of whom were killed in southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, the AP reports. NATO commanders warn that casualties will keep rising as the offensive in the Taliban heartlands around Kandahar continues. America's top commander in Afghanistan says the last of the extra troops being sent to the country will be in place within days. He stressed that the withdrawal of US troops scheduled to begin in July next year will be very gradual and will depend on conditions on the ground. Guidelines recently drawn up "recognize that this is a process, not an event. In other words it will typically represent a thinning out of ISAF forces, not a hand-off per se," Gen. David Petraeus told Reuters.