Mattis warns of tough year for Afghanistan
‘Moscow supplying arms’
KABUL, April 25, (Agencies): US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned of “another tough year” in Afghanistan as he arrived on an unannounced visit Monday, hours after his Afghan counterpart resigned over a deadly Taleban attack that triggered anger and left the embattled army in disarray.
Paying his first visit to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, Mattis met with President Ashraf Ghani and other officials and US military commanders.
“We’re under no illusions about the challenges associated with this mission,” he said at a press conference in Kabul with General John Nicholson, US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
“2017 is going to be another tough year for the valiant Afghan security forces and the international troops who have stood, and will continue to stand, shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghanistan against terrorism,” he said.
His arrival came after a Taleban attack Friday on an Afghan military base which left more than 100 soldiers killed or wounded.
“It shows why we stand with the people of this country against such heinous acts perpetrated by ... this barbaric enemy,” Mattis said.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that a US allegation Moscow was supplying arms to Taleban insurgents in Afghanistan was unsubstantiated.
The head of US and international forces in Afghanistan said on Monday he was “not refuting” reports that Russia was providing support, including weapons, to the Taleban.
Taleban kill 8 police:
The Taleban overran three security checkpoints in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province, killing eight policemen and cutting off a key road and two of the region’s districts, an Afghan official said on Tuesday.
According to Sunatullah Timor, the provincial spokesman, the attack, which took place on Monday in the district of Darqad, triggered an hours-long firefight and also left three police officers wounded. Eight of the attackers were also killed in the gunbattle, he added.
The insurgents succeeded in cutting off the districts of Darqad and Khuja Bhawedin, Timor said, but the government has sent in reinforcements and launched a counter-attack.
Rebels used villagers as shields:
Maoist rebels who killed 25 paramilitary troops in an ambush in central India used local villagers as human shields, a survivor said Tuesday.
Sher Mohammed, a paramilitary soldier injured in Monday’s attack in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh state, said around 300 fighters attacked the troops as they provided security for the construction of a new road opposed by the Maoists.
“The Naxalites (Maoists) first sent villagers to track our location. Then we saw 100-150 villagers approaching us. They were not armed. How could we fire at them?” said Mohammed, who was part of the 99-member commando team.
“There must have been 300 Naxalites, all in black uniform.