Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in May that he nominated McChrystal to replace General David McKiernan because "new thinking" was needed at a time when President Barack Obama was launching a new strategy for the war-torn country.

Gates chose a general steeped in US special operations and with credibility among the commandos who are likely to bear the weight of renewed US efforts to minimise civilian casualties.

The general plans to deliver a message stressing the "strategic consequences" of civilian casualties when he meets troops in a tour of the country in the coming weeks, his strategic communications director, Rear Admiral Greg Smith, told reporters.

McChrystal had taken over at a time "that really it is critical that we make some big changes," Smith said after the general assumed command in Kabul.

"He has got a very unique background that gives him a real sense of working with a counterinsurgency in a way that brings a much more dynamic fight to it," Smith said.

McChrystal, 54, was the commanding general of the Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina from September 2003 to February 2006, and then commander of Joint Special Operations Command until August 2008.

Those positions put him in the thick of US special operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

He has been credited with running the 2006 operation that hunted down and killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and with devising the still-classified tactics used to smash Al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed cells in 2007 and 2008.

But special operators also have been accused of detainee abuses under McChrystal's command. Questions over the issue last year were reported to have held up his appointment to his current post.

He was also found "accountable" for making inaccurate statements in the awarding of a Silver Star for Army Ranger Pat Tillman, an ex-American football star who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

A West Point graduate who entered the army in 1976, McChrystal has had a stellar army career with key commands interspersed with time off for study at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Council on Foreign Affairs, and the Naval War College.

He was the chief of staff of the combined joint task force that conducted "Operation Enduring Freedom," the US-backed campaign that ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in late 2001.

During the first Gulf War, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia as an army special operations action officer.

His career in special operations began as commander of a detachment with the 7th Special Forces Group in 1980.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said McChrystal has "the broadness and the depth that go far beyond just high-end special operations skills."

"I'm extremely confident that he will be able to carry out this mission in its fullness to include, obviously, those skills, but others as well," Mullen said in May.

Before taking command in Afghanistan, McChrystal was a director in the offices of The Joint Staff in Washington. He was promoted to general before arriving in Kabul.

earlier related report
US general assumes command in Afghanistan
US General Stanley McChrystal, tasked with carrying out the new US strategy in the war against the Taliban, on Monday formally assumed command of international troops in Afghanistan.

McChrystal, a former commander of special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, was nominated in May after the United States sacked his predecessor and called for "new thinking" in the fight against the extremists.

The Taliban-led insurgency is now at its bloodiest level since 2001, when the hardliners were ousted in a US-led invasion, and troops face the urgent task of reining in the violence before presidential elections on August 20.

"The Afghan people are in the centre of our mission. In reality they are the mission. We must protect them from violence whatever its nature," McChrystal said at the headquarters of NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

"2009 will be a critical year for Afghanistan and a critical year for our coalition, but while operating with care, we will not be timid," he said at the assumption of command ceremony attended by Afghan and Western officials.

McChrystal, who arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday, is expected to conduct a review of military strategy and make recommendations on any changes within two months of his arrival in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

In talks on Sunday, President Hamid Karzai reminded McChrystal of the military's obligation to protect civilians -- a reference to the heavy civilian casualties suffered in the battle against the insurgents, Karzai's office said.

"The most important element of the mission of the new NATO/coalition forces commander in Afghanistan is to protect the civilian population during the anti-terrorism military operations," Karzai was quoted as telling the general.

ISAF said the general had commented that "intelligence-driven precision operations, subordinate to efforts protecting development projects and Afghanistan's population, will win the support of the Afghan people."

"The measure of effectiveness will not be (the number of) enemy killed, it will be the number of Afghans shielded from violence," Karzai was quoted as telling the general in a ISAF statement.

The removal of McChrystal's predecessor, General David McKiernan, was announced as the US military was accused of one of its deadliest incidents involving civilians since the 2001 invasion to remove the Taliban.

US war planes targeting Taliban positions in the southwestern province of Farah on May 4 struck compounds where locals said villagers had taken shelter from heavy fighting between insurgents and the security forces.

An Afghan government probe said 140 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed. The US military admitted to some mistakes but issued a far lower death toll -- 20-30 civilians killed as well as around 60 militants.

Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Anif Atmar said Sunday that Taliban rebels would try to turn this summer into the "bloodiest" yet to show their strength in the face of US troop reinforcements.

"They have political motives for this... they want to send a message to the international community that 'even if you send more troops we can continue our terrorist attacks'," he said.

Thousands of mostly US troops are moving in to ensure the August polls go ahead smoothly and to reinforce the turbulent south of the country, a Taliban stronghold.

Atmar said the number of militant attacks had increased about 40 percent in the past week compared to the week before, leaving 48 civilians, 30 policemen and 176 rebels dead.

Regional US commander General David Petraeus had said Thursday that the past week had seen the highest level of security incidents since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban and he warned of "tough months ahead."

There are around 56,000 US troops in Afghanistan, making up the bulk of the nearly 90,000 international forces assisting in the battle against extremist insurgents.

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