Outgoing IJC chief Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson and ISAF Command Sgt. Maj. Isaia Vimoto share a congratulatory hug after casing XVIII Airborne Corps colors during the IJC closing ceremony on December 8, 2014.

KABUL — Despite an escalation in Taliban attacks in recent months, the outgoing commanders of the NATO-led military coalition sounded an optimistic note Monday at a ceremony marking the closure of the ISAF Joint Command, which has overseen combat operations since 2009.

“Everyone made tremendous sacrifices but those sacrifices were not in vain,” said Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson said.

He spoke on a chilly morning next to the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport in a ceremony to mark the formal closing of the International Assistance Force’s ground forces center, which he has commanded since February.

The closure is part of the continuing drawdown of NATO ground forces, whose combat mission in Afghanistan is due to end on Jan. 1, when it will be replaced by a train-and-advise mission known as Resolute Support.

As in the past, military leaders made optimistic pronouncements about progress in the country that stand in contrast to events on the battlefields.

“The (Afghan security forces) overmatch the enemy wherever and whenever they meet,” ISAF commander John Campbell said.

In the last few months. Afghan forces, often short on supplies and sometimes outgunned, have taken heavy losses as the Taliban have sought to reassert control in some of their traditional strongholds. High-profile attacks in the capital have put residents, foreign diplomats and international aid organizations on edge.

On Saturday, Washington announced it would keep an additional 1,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan past the end of the year, bringing its total commitment for 2015 to nearly 11,000.

Monday’s event was highly symbolic. The flag ceremony represents the penultimate step before U.S.-led international forces shift to the new, pared-down mission. What it symbolized, however, depended on the observer.

For Ali Akbar Qasimi, the head of the Afghan parliament’s defense commission, it marked the beginning of a perilous chapter for an Afghan defense force he believes is still too inexperienced and ill-equipped to defend the country on its own.

“I believe no one will admit his failure at the end of his job,” he said of the closing ceremony. “After this project, after this many years, no one will say, ‘I’m done and I have totally failed in my job.’”

In many ways, IJC, represents the hopes and failures of the war since President Barack Obama made ending the war in Iraq and winning the war in Afghanistan his foreign-policy priorities. Created in 2009 to coincide with the influx of more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops, IJC oversaw day-to-day military operations during the bloodiest fighting foreign troops experienced.

Since then, there have been some significant successes, most notably in the city of Kandahar, the spiritual homeland of the Taliban, which has been relatively calm after years of constant bombings and other deadly attacks.

But IJC-led operations fell far short of the goal of defeating or even significantly weakening the Taliban, who have now regularly engage in fierce combat with the Afghan security forces.

As ISAF forces have wound down their military efforts, violence has actually risen, with record numbers of civilians and Afghan troops dying. After 13 years of war and nearly 3,500 foreign troops killed, U.S. commanders acknowledge that the war won’t end on the battlefield but in some sort of peace deal.

“The defeat (of the Taliban) is going to be part of a political process as well as a military process,” Anderson said.

Underscoring the tenuous situation in Afghanistan, a rocket slammed into ISAF’s main logistics hub, Bagram Air Field, on Sunday night, killing two civilian workers.

Insurgents also launched a fierce assault on the Maiwand district government center in Helmand province on Monday that left several people dead. The Taliban have flexed their muscle throughout Helmand province recently, nearly overrunning the district of Sangin before being forced to withdraw by the Afghan army.

In his speech, Anderson hit back at criticism that the problems in Helmand, where nearly 1,000 coalition troops lost their lives, illustrate the shortfalls of the Afghan military.

“Sangin is secure,” he said. “The government of Afghanistan remains in control.”

But Sulaiman Shah, who until last week was governor of Sangin district, said that government forces there are in desperate need of coalition air support and that insurgents still control much of the district.

“The government (forces are) in a defensive position, only able to protect themselves where they are and not able to recapture territory,” he said. “The Taliban are not going away easily.”

druzin.heath@stripes.com

Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes