US/Afghanistan

Holbrooke in Kabul, as security deteriorates

Article published on the 2009-02-13 Latest update 2009-02-13 15:29 TU

Holbrooke in Pakistan Thursday
(Phot: Reuters)

US envoy Richard Holbrooke arrived in Afghanistan on Friday for talks with officials but is not expected to see Hamid Karzai until Saturday, amid reports that the Obama adminstration is sidelining the Afghan President. Meanwhile, a US intellgence report said that the Taliban insurgency has gathered strength in the last year, up to five children are reported to have been killed in new clashes.

During his visit, Holbrooke, who has criticised Karzai in the past, is to meet other politicians who may stand for President in the election scheduled for August.

At a security conference last weekend, Holbrooke said that Afghanistan will be "tougher than Iraq" and there are press reports of the Obama adminstration perparing to distance itself from Karzai.

Holbrooke arrived from Pakistan, where he promised that Washington would pay more attention to the region this year, and goes on to India.

Obama is expected to announce that more troops will be sent to Afghanistan soon.

But the former chief of Pakistan's armed forces, General Aslam Beg, predicts that the US will have difficulty achieving its ends.

"Having been forced to exit from Iraq, where they wanted to have a firm foothold, they want to have a firm foothold in Afghanistan," he told RFI, predicting that this would not be possible "because the ground conditions are so different and so difficult".

For his part, Karzai is expected to raise the numerous civilian casualties in operations by foreign troops in the country.

Officials in the southern province of Uruzgan announced that five civlians were killed during a battle with insurgents on Thursday. Australian troops involved in the operation said the five were children, but Afghan police said two were adults and that all were members of the same family.

Newly-appointed US intelligence chief Dennis Blair reported to Congress that Taliban insurgency has expanded in scope over the past year.

His annual threat assessment said security has worsened in the east, south and north-west and declared that corruption has "exceeded culturally tolerable levels".

The Kabul government's inability to develop honest, effective and loyal institutions at local and district level "erodes its popular legitimacy and increases the influence of local warlords and the Taliban," it said.

Also Thursday, US auditors reported that the Pentagon has failed to find 87,000 of the 242,000 weapons given to Afghan security forces between december 2004 and June 2008.

They include assault rifles and grenade launchers.