Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey talks to the media following the Combined/Joint Task Force-76 transfer of authority ceremony at Bagram Air Base on Tuesday. (Michael Abrams / S&S)

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — The Army’s civilian leader made his first visit Tuesday to a country where thousands of soldiers have fought the war on terror the last four years.

Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey, who took office on Nov. 19, said he was visiting to see the troops in theater and talk with local commanders to make sure they had what they needed.

Asked about troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq, he seemed to indicate that no immediate changes were planned.

“There’s not a timetable on troops in either theater,” he said. “It depends on conditions.”

Harvey spoke to a small group of reporters just after Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, had answered a few questions.

Barno, expected to give up his command early next month, said coalition forces had achieved “many successes across the board” in the last year.

He said there were fewer attacks on coalition forces in February than in any other month in the last two years. He said he expects that to change somewhat in April and May as the weather improves, allowing anti-coalition forces more mobility.

Asked about the possibility of permanent American bases in country, Barno pointed to remarks that Afghan President Hamid Karzai made during his election campaign about wanting a longterm relationship with the United States.

He said such issues would not be decided by the U.S. military in any case, but by the respective governments of both countries.