A Western military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said that the Afghan forces would take the lead.

“Night operations are something the Afghans will be doing in a much more targeted way, the way they were trained to do but were held back under Karzai,” the official said. “We’re not going to be doing that, but there are going to be training missions with advisers along. They are not going to go onto the target with the Afghans, but they may go along in some cases and stay back.”

There have not as yet been any reports of night raids since Mr. Ghani took office in September, although he has already effectively removed any obstacle to them. Under Mr. Karzai, the Afghan special forces were still allowed to carry them out, but few took place because those forces generally lacked the necessary air support and other facilities. In February 2013, Mr. Karzai forbade the Afghan military from asking for American air support.

On Saturday a White House official responded to an article in The New York Times that said that President Obama had issued a secret order continuing combat operations in 2015, after their planned end on Dec. 31. The official reiterated that “the United States’ combat mission in Afghanistan will be over by the end of this year.”

The American mission in 2015, the official said, would primarily be training, advising and assisting the Afghan National Security Forces. “As part of this mission, the United States may provide combat enabler support to the ANSF in limited circumstances to prevent detrimental strategic effects to these Afghan security forces,” the White House official said.

“Combat enabler” is military jargon for functions like air support, transportation, intelligence gathering and communications — functions for which Afghan forces are underprepared. The Afghans have relatively few combat-ready helicopters, for instance, while nearly all night raids are carried out by helicopter to achieve surprise.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, declined to confirm or deny that night raids would resume. “It is above my authority to comment,” the general said. “The government or National Security Council can comment on it. I cannot.”