US defence secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Afghanistan Friday on an unannounced visit, officials said, with media reporting his trip was aimed at assessing the deteriorating security situation in t
US defence secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Afghanistan Friday on an unannounced visit, officials said, with media reporting his trip was aimed at assessing the deteriorating security situation in the country.
His visit comes amid an surge in Taliban attacks across Afghanistan and mounting concerns that loyalists of the Islamic State group are making steady inroads in the country.
“(Carter) has landed” in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said in a brief statement.
The US embassy in Kabul also confirmed his arrival, but shared no details on the purpose of his visit.
Local media said the surprise visit, which comes after a brief stopover in Iraq, is meant to assess the fragile security situation in Afghanistan.
Fuelling those concerns is a new Pentagon report released this week detailing a surge in insurgent attacks in the second half of 2015.
This month marks a year since the US and Nato-led mission in Afghanistan transitioned into an Afghan-led operation, with allied nations assisting in training local forces. President Barack Obama in October announced that thousands of US troops will remain in Afghanistan past 2016, backpedalling on previous plans to shrink the force and acknowledging that Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone.
The Taliban briefly captured the strategic northern city of Kunduz in September in their most spectacular victory in 14 years, dealing a stinging blow to Afghan forces as they battle the insurgents on multiple fronts.
The Taliban have since then threatened several other provincial centres — from Lashkar Gah in the south to Maimana in the northwest — fuelling concerns that Afghanistan was on the brink of a security collapse.
Mr Obama said the United States will maintain its current force of 9,800 in the country through 2016.
After that, rather than go down to a normal embassy presence as had been planned, the United States will leave a force of 5,500 troops in place to train Afghan forces and conduct counter-terrorism missions.
