US Secretary of State Tillerson in shock go to to Afghanistan

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United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid a shock go to to Afghanistan on Monday to debate Washington’s new technique with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Tillerson reiterated the US dedication to working with the Kabul authorities and regional companions “to realize peace in Afghanistan and deny protected havens to terrorists who threaten that aim”, mentioned a US embassy assertion posted on Twitter.

The assembly occurred at Bagram Airfield, the US’s largest base in Afghanistan, because the resurgent Taliban step up assaults on Afghan police and troops in response to the US technique introduced in August.

“Clearly we now have to proceed to combat towards the Taliban, towards others, to ensure that them to know they’ll by no means win a navy victory,” Tillerson instructed reporters after the assembly that was additionally attended by Afghan Chief Government Abdullah Abdullah.

It was Tillerson’s first journey to Afghanistan as secretary of state and comes a number of weeks after US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis additionally paid an unannounced go to.

The closed-door talks lined Ghani’s reform programme, his anti-corruption technique and preparations for parliamentary elections because of happen subsequent 12 months.

US President Donald Trump “has declared that we’re right here to remain till we will safe a technique of reconciliation and peace”, Tillerson mentioned, including: “It isn’t a limiteless dedication.”

Tillerson’s unannounced go to follows one of many bloodiest weeks in Afghanistan in latest reminiscence, with greater than 200 individuals killed in a number of assaults on safety installations and mosques throughout the nation.

A spokesman for the militants instructed AFP final week the assaults have been “a transparent message… the enemy who thought that they had scared us with the brand new Trump technique have now been given a lesson”.

The Taliban have been rampant because the withdrawal of NATO fight forces on the finish of 2014.

Trump has cleared the way in which for the deployment of hundreds extra US troops in an open-ended dedication and there was a surge within the US airstrikes, however the insurgency has solely intensified.

Militants fired a number of rockets into Kabul on Monday morning however there have been no casualties. Throughout Mattis’s go to final month Taliban militants fired a number of rockets in direction of the town’s worldwide airport in an assault that killed one individual and wounded 11 others.

Tillerson is because of fly to Pakistan on Tuesday.

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