US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan during which he is expected to discuss the prospect of setting up permanent US bases in the war-torn country.
A day after visiting Iraq, Rumsfeld flew into the southern city of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, at around 10:30am to meet US troops and inspect provincial reconstruction efforts.
He will later travel to Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on security, counterterrorism operations and strategies to flush out Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants on the Afghan-Pakistan border, officials said.
They are expected to explore the idea of establishing a "forward-operating location" as part of a long-term strategy to keep al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants at bay, as well as a strategic regional logistics and military center.
Declaration
The idea comes from a public declaration by Karzai a year ago about building a long-term security cooperation agreement between the US and Afghanistan, US sources said.
It is believed that the establishment of a permanent operating location should give Washington the right to decide when and how it should be used.
US-led forces ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in late 2001 and more than 18,000 troops from a majority US coalition remain in Afghanistan.
Most are based at either Bagram airbase, just north of Kabul, or at Kandahar airbase, which the US uses to launch raids against insurgents still active in the south and east of the country.
US military officials in Afghanistan last month said that they would spend US$83 million on upgrading the two airbases, a move that is widely seen as a step towards building permanent facilities.
The US also has an operating base at the old Soviet airport of Shindand in the western province of Herat, near the Iranian border, and a forward operating base at Salerno in the southeast of the country, not far from Pakistan.
Renewed offensive
Taliban-led militants are waging a renewed springtime offensive after the bitterest winter in a decade and have mounted a string of recent attacks on US forces as well as Afghan troops and police.
Twelve suspected Taliban militants were killed on Monday in a US airstrike after they attacked a former Afghan militia commander in southeastern Paktia province. Two US soldiers were also wounded.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first visit to Kabul last month was marked by the explosion of two bombs in Kandahar which killed at least five people and injured 32.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS