Gates meets troops in Afghanistan
2010-03-09 [13:24:36 hrs] | | US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday, met troops fighting the Taliban, in the rugged southern region of war-torn Afghanistan.
Gates flew to Kandahar early Tuesday for meetings with US and British generals overseeing the current military campaign in Marjah.
Gates presented Silver Stars for valour to two Army aviators before scheduled visits with US forces at small forward operating bases elsewhere in the south.
On Monday, the Pentagon chief said the progress made in the Marjah offensive, launched last month, is encouraging, but he stopped short of saying that the war is at a turning point. The Marjah campaign routed most Taliban fighters from a town they once controlled, without a high casualty toll for US troops and the Afghan security forces fighting alongside them.
Gates told reporters that, ‘people still need to understand there is some very hard fighting, very hard days ahead.’
On Monday, Gates met with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal said preparations have begun for a crucial campaign to assert the Afghan government’s control over Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban.
Gates travelled to Afghanistan to check on the progress of the war's expansion, directed late last year by President Barack Obama.
The 30,000 additional US forces Obama ordered are now arriving and most will be in place by summer. Without being specific, McChrystal suggested that any heavy fighting in Kandahar will wait until more US and NATO troops are ready.
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