Tide turned on Taliban momentum: Petraeus

US General David Petraeus said Monday that the international troops he commands in Afghanistan have turned the tide on the Taliban's momentum there, although he warned tough battles still lay ahead. In an interview with the BBC, he also played down the prospect of a rapid withdrawal of US troops next year, repeating his insistence that a target of July 2011 was only a date when a process begins. As the death toll of US troops in Afghanistan rose again with the death of four soldiers on Sunday, Petraeus said the road ahead could be bloody but insisted foreign forces were making progress.