Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of International

Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of International Security
Assistance Force/U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, talks with Dr. Ashraf Ghani, a senior Afghan adviser and head of the Afghan transition process, prior to attending the capital city of Lashkar Gah's transition of authority ceremony July 20, in Helmand province to the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Allen told the Afghan leaders in attendance he was proud to be here in Afghanistan serving alongside the Afghan people shoulder-to-shoulder, or shohna ba shohna. Lashkar Gah is one of the seven locations chosen to begin the country-wide transition process this July. The others are Kabul province with the exception of Sarobi District, Bamyan and Panjshayr provinces, as well as the cities of Mehtar Lam in Laghman province, Mazar-e-Sharif in Balkh province, and Herat in Herat province.