US President Barack Obama pressed Afghan President Hamid Karzai to stand resolute against corruption and rallied cheering troops to defeat the Taliban during a surprise night-time visit to Kabul.
Obama flew into Afghanistan under the cover of darkness aboard Air Force One late on Sunday for his first visit to the country since taking office more than a year ago.
“We are here to help Afghans forge a hard-won peace while realizing the extraordinary potential of the Afghan people,” the commander-in-chief said in a speech to US troops at Bagram Airfield just outside Kabul.
The war against the Taliban, now in its ninth year, is claiming record fatalities among the 121,000 US-led and NATO troops based in Afghanistan, where Obama is surging reinforcements before a withdrawal planned for July next year.
“We’re going to deny al-Qaeda [a] safe haven. We’re going to reverse the Taliban’s momentum,” said Obama, who spent less than six hours in Afghanistan and was due back in Washington yesterday morning.
Obama’s visit — which included briefings with US General Stanley McChrystal, the overall commander of foreign troops, and US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry — gave him the chance to assess the progress of his new strategy.
Obama pressed Karzai, re-elected in controversial elections last year, to step up the fight against corruption and the drugs trade, and invited the Afghan leader to visit Washington on May 12.
The US president, who has had a testy relationship with Karzai since taking office in January last year, also urged him to “continue to make progress” on the civilian front, including on governance, graft and rule of law.
“We had a good discussion of the issues between our two countries, about the region, and of continued struggle against extremism and terrorism,” Karzai said at a late-night ceremony at the presidential palace.
Later, dressed in a leather bomber jacket, Obama told cheering troops at Bagram he was confident they would get the job done to stop the Taliban from regaining power and halt al-Qaeda.
“Al-Qaeda and their extremist allies are a threat to the people of Afghanistan and a threat to the people of America, but they’re also a threat to people all around the world,” Obama said. “My main job here today is to say thank you on behalf of the entire American people. You are part of the finest military in the history of the world. And we are proud of you.”
In the south, a NATO helicopter crashed yesterday, wounding 14 people on board in the second such incident in a week, police and the military said.
Deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Jailani Farahi said the chopper came down in the Atghar district of Zabul Province bordering Kandahar.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said that initial reports showed that “there were no fatalities in the incident, and all personnel on board have been evacuated to nearby ISAF medical treatment facilities.”
Farahi said nine foreign soldiers, three Afghan troops and one Afghan police officer were among the injured, and said the crash was caused by technical failure.
But Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed insurgents shot down the helicopter and killed all the personnel on board.
“The cause of the incident is under investigation, but there are no indications that it was caused by insurgent action,” ISAF said.
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