Afghanistan rocked by violence as Mattis visits

US SECRETARY of Defence Jim Mattis arrived for a surprise visit to Afghanistan yesterday as the Trump administration considers boosting US military support for the struggling country.

The visit, Mattis’s first as secretary of defence, comes days after a Taliban attack on one of Afghanistan’s largest and most secure bases, killed at least 140 soldiers – leading to yesterday’s resignation by the country’s army chief and defence minister.

The brazen attack was the largest by the Taliban on a military base and involved gunmen dressed in army uniforms who penetrated the base and then gunned down unarmed service men and set off suicide vests.

Mattis’s visit also came as suspected Taliban insurgents yesterday attacked a US-operated base in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost.

The attackers detonated a car bomb at an entrance to Camp Chapman, a secretive facility manned by US forces and private military contractors, said Mubarez Mohammad Zadran, a spokesperson for the provincial governor.

President Ashaf Ghani accepted the resignations of Defence Minister Abdullah Habibi and Army Chief of Staff Qadam Shah Shahim, who were likely to have been scheduled to meet Mattis.

The US defence chief will meet the battlefield commanders, as well as General John Nicholson, who leads US forces in Afghanistan. He will also sit down with Afghan leaders, including Ghani.

Mattis, who last visited Afghanistan in 2013 when he was a marine general and leader of Centcom, is wrapping up his six-nation trip through the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

The US has been attempting to end its 16-year involvement in Afghanistan and turn over the fight against the Taliban and the Islamic State to local forces.

Friday’s attack and an Islamic State assault on a Kabul hospital in March that killed at least 50, are throwing into the question the ability of Afghan forces to secure the country without major US support.