Gates on surprise visit to Kabul

KABUL—US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates arrived on Monday night in Kabul for a surprise visit to Afghanistan, reporters witnessed. Gates, on his third trip to Afghanistan since he took over as head of the Pentagon at last year, will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday, as well as with the commanders of US forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Gates was travelling from Djibouti.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan late Monday for a surprise visit to evaluate progress in the international fight against Taliban extremists allied with Al-Qaeda.
The “clear concern is that for two or three years there has been an increase of overall level of violence (in Afghanistan),” Gates told reporters during a short stopover in Djibouti en route to Kabul.
The defense secretary said he wanted to get an update on the security situation here, especially in the south where the Taliban are most active, and assess if there was any spillover from extremist activity in Pakistan.—Agencies