USA military officials told American reporters that up to 40 projectiles hit the Hamid Karzai airport, including 29 rocket-propelled grenades. He said flights at the airport weren’t interrupted and they operated as scheduled.
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US forces conducted an air strike supporting an Afghan special police unit fighting the attackers but suffered a “missile malfunction”, causing several casualties, the USA -led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission there said.
An official said at least six mortar rounds were fired. No further information on the strike or its consequences was immediately available. The NATO mission in Afghanistan, Resolute Support, said “one of the missiles malfunctioned, causing several casualties”.
The NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, known as Resolute Support, issued a statement confirming the attack.
Two Taliban commanders told NBC News on condition of anonymity that “insiders” in Afghan security and the airport tipped them off to Mattis’ visit.
Stoltenberg said: “The more stable Afghanistan is the more safe we will be”.
Earlier this week SIGAR criticised USA efforts to train Afghanistan’s security forces, saying they were being hampered by slapdash instruction, shoddy oversight and failures in governance.
“We know the cost of staying in Afghanistan”, he said.
However, the USA military withheld the exact timing of Mattis’ arrival for security reasons.
Mattis, who was earlier in India, and Stoltenberg arrived in Kabul early in the morning.
“We are ready to train, assist and advise”.
United States officials further added that both countries have been involved in matchmaking between companies, with the help of industry bodies like FICCI. “We need to sit down together and talk very openly and frankly about where we’re at today, where we’ve been and where we’re going to go”.
Ghani praised the new strategy in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in NY last week.
The Taliban claimed credit and said the target was Mattis.
However, details of the plan are still unknown. The number given was around 2,600 more than had been officially disclosed due to a change in its accounting procedures.
October marks the 16th anniversary of the start of the war.
Ghani said his government “remains open to talks with the Taliban” as well as a peace strategy involving Pakistan. He spoke of the importance of Trump’s new strategy in seeking an end to extremist violence that has blighted the country for more than a decade.
Many analysts have questioned whether seeking greater support in Afghanistan from India, Pakistan’s archrival, is a wise move. “We are not prepared to be anyone’s scapegoat”, he said. Nevertheless 17 years later American young men and women are still shedding their blood in vain in this godforsaken country.
Jaitley referred to the importance of connectivity, and the role Chabahar Port in Iran and the Indo-Afghan air corridor can play.
Mattis on Wednesday promised a more “holistic” approach to the conflict with the Taliban, which was ousted from power in a 2001 NATO-led operation.
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“Our goal is to solve this diplomatically”, he said.
