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US VP-elect Biden promises help in Afghan visit

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-11 11:09

KABUL, Afghanistan -- US Vice President-elect Joe Biden pledged long-term American support for Afghanistan during a visit Saturday, and the commander of NATO-led forces told him that thousands of new American troops expected this year will need more support against surging Taliban violence.

In this handout photo provided by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), US Vice President-elect Joe Biden, right, meets with US Gen. David McKiernan, head of the NATO-led ISAF in Afghanistan, after arriving at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009. [Agencies]

US President-elect Barack Obama has promised to end the war in Iraq and refocus American military efforts on Afghanistan. Biden's visit is a sign that Obama plans to make the region an immediate priority.

In a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, Biden "talked about ... the fight against terrorism, American troop increases as well as equipping and supplying of the Afghan forces," a statement from Karzai's office said, without providing any details.

Earlier, America's top general in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, told Biden that thousands of new American troops expected in the country's south will need more support to beat back surging Taliban violence.

Some 32,000 US troops in Afghanistan serve alongside another 32,000 other NATO-led and coalition troops, the highest number since the invasion to oust the Taliban from power began in 2001.

The US is rushing up to 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and some will go to its volatile southern provinces to combat the spiraling violence.

"Gen. McKiernan explained the current situation and talked about the incoming troops and the need for additional enablers ... things like helicopters, engineers, military police, transportation assets," said Col. Greg Julian, a US military spokesman. "As we expand in the south we will need those additional enablers to cover for the troops."

Southern Afghanistan has become the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, which left some 6,400 people — mostly militants — dead in 2008 alone.

Foreign and Afghan troops are the target of daily roadside bombings and suicide attacks. In 2008, 151 American troops died in the country, more than in any other year since 2001.

Obama has called Afghanistan an "urgent crisis," saying it's time to heed the call from US commanders for significantly more US troops.

Biden also discussed Afghanistan's priorities for 2009 with the United Nations' top representative for the country, Kai Eide, U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said.

"Their meeting touched on security, political and developmental issues, including donor coordination, police reform and regional cooperation," Edwards said.

During his meetings at NATO's Kabul headquarters, the senator also applauded some of the U.S. troops stationed there.

"Thank you, I mean it sincerely," Biden told the troops, according to a NATO statement. "It's a big, big deal, what you're doing here. You're making a big sacrifice in a (challenging) environment. Thank you for your service." The senator from Delaware will take office as vice president on Jan. 20.

Biden and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham also visited the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Biden's office said.

Biden's visit to Afghanistan follows his trip to neighboring Pakistan, where aides said he met with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Biden's tour comes after five US soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, and as US officials warned the violence would likely intensify in the coming year.

Three US soldiers were killed in an explosion Friday in southern Afghanistan, Julian said. Another two soldiers were killed in a suicide attack Thursday in a marketplace in Kandahar province's Maywand district.