Obama visits Afghanistan on overseas trail

KABUL: US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan Saturday at the start of a major international tour that will also include Iraq, his office and the Afghan foreign ministry said.

Obama’s office said the senator would visit some of the 36,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan as part of an international effort to defeat a growing extremist insurgency.

“He will meet President (Hamid) Karzai and they will discuss issues of mutual interest,” added foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen, confirming Obama’s arrival to AFP.

The Illinois senator has been outspoken about the need to do more to help Afghanistan as violence linked to the insurgency has worsened with some of the deadliest attacks in recent weeks.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what the situation on the ground is,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told reporters before leaving the United States.

“I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of, you know, what … their biggest concerns are. And I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they’ve been doing.”

Obama said he was visiting Afghanistan and Iraq in his capacity as a US senator, and it was up to President George W. Bush to discuss specific policy with Karzai and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

If he wins the November elections, Obama plans to commit at least two more combat brigades, up to 10,000 men, to Afghanistan, which is enduring a resurgence in fighting by the Islamic Taliban militia.

Some of these soldiers would be redeployed from Iraq.

He has also said greater emphasis was needed on training and equipping the Afghan army and police, and called for a greater commitment from Europe and NATO.

“We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more non-military assistance to accomplish the mission there,” Obama said in the New York Times on Monday.

“Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been.”

In a major foreign policy address on Tuesday, Obama reiterated his promise to get most US combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months, and to focus on Al-Qaeda havens in Pakistan and Afghanistan.