By Xinhua
Kabul : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart David Miliband paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan Thursday amid increasing insurgency and rift among the NATO member states over the alliance mission in the country, according to an Afghan official who refused to be named.
Afghan officials are tight-lipped over the visit of the two dignitaries due to security concerns but said that they would call on President Hamid Karzai in the afternoon.
Rice and her British counterpart flew to Taliban’s birthplace Kandahar to visit NATO’s troops over there before holding their meeting with Karzai.
Rice, who earlier visited London and exchanged views with British leaders over the NATO mission, called for more support to Afghanistan stressing that NATO’s strategy should be shifted from keeping peace to fighting terror and hunting down insurgents.
Pentagon chief Robert Gates asked Washington’s allies not long ago to contribute more troops to bolster the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Gates also announced deploying 3,000 additional troops in the war-torn nation this year.
However, Germany rebuffed the call and stressed it had no plan to deploy troops in Afghanistan’s troubled southern provinces where Taliban militants are active.
A major ally of the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan, Canada also said it would not extend its mission beyond this year unless other NATO member states contribute more troops.
More than 55,000 troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the US-led coalition forces have been fighting Taliban and Al Qaeda allies to ensure stability in Afghanistan.