KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber killed one American service member and wounded three other US troops outside a base in southern Afghanistan on Thursday shortly after a visit there by US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, officials said.
Panetta dismissed the attack as a desperate and futile attempt by insurgents to sow chaos in Afghanistan.
But the attack, which was reported to have wounded more than a dozen Afghans, was a reminder of how insurgent violence is still adding to the death toll in the 11-year war -- even as the United States and its allies prepare to hand over security to the Afghans.
“That was the type of attack that we’ve seen throughout the country,” Panetta said. “This is what they resort to in order to try to continue to try to stimulate chaos in this country. They will not be successful at doing that.”
Panetta travelled to Afghanistan in part to firm up options to present to Obama about how many troops to keep in the country once the Nato combat mission ends.
Obama campaigned for re-election partly on a promise to wind down the war in Afghanistan. One US official said that options under consideration included keeping as few as 6,000 troops in Afghanistan, compared to 68,000 now.
At the start of their private meeting at Karzai’s palace in Kabul, the president asked Panetta about the attack at Kandahar Airfield and whether the insurgents knew he was visiting the base. Panetta responded that the attack was on the outskirts of the base after he was gone.
The suicide car bomber rammed into an armored vehicle at approximately 5:15 pm around the perimeter of Kandahar Airfield, in the country’s south. Just hours earlier, Panetta had praised US troops there for their sacrifice and noted the death toll from the Afghan conflict.
“We’ve spilled a lot of blood here -- all of you have spilled a lot of blood... Over 2,000...have been killed in action here,” he said.
“But the bottom line is that those sacrifices, all of those sacrifices are not in vain. We have made good progress in achieving the mission that we have embarked upon -- and it’s because of you.”
Reuters
