KABUL: US Secretary of State John Kerry held a second round of talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul yesterday after the two put on a public show of unity in a bid to repair damaged ties.
Kerry visited Afghanistan as the United States ceded to a key long-standing demand of Karzai by delivering full control of Bagram prison, where Taleban and Al-Qaeda suspects are held north of Kabul, to Afghan forces.
Karzai had turned the fate of Bagram and its hundreds of detainees into a rallying cry for his push to take back sovereignty as the bulk of US-led combat troops prepare to leave by the end of 2014 after more than a decade of war.
The militant threat facing Afghanistan was yesterday again underlined when seven suicide bombers targeted a police base in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
All the attackers and five officers died in the assault, for which the Taleban claimed responsibility.
After a series of fiery anti-US outbursts from Karzai in recent weeks, both he and Kerry were keen to make a public display of friendship and stress that relations were back on track.
“Bagram prison was handed over to the Afghan government... Finally after many years of effort we have reached a deal,” Karzai told reporters at a joint press conference late Monday.
Kerry said: “The US is committed to an enduring partnership... The US supports a strong and united Afghanistan.
“We are committed to Afghanistan’s sovereignty and we will not let Al-Qaeda or the Taleban shake this commitment.” Earlier this month, Karzai accused Washington of working in concert with the Taleban and his spokesman described the NATO coalition’s war effort as “aimless and unwise,” triggering fury from Afghanistan’s foreign backers.
Responding to a storm of protest over the collusion allegations, Kerry said he was confident that Karzai “does not believe that the United States has any interest except to see the Taleban come to the table to make peace.”
For his part, Karzai said: “I was interpreted as saying the US and Taleban are colluding, but I did not use this word.” Afghan forces are gradually taking on responsibility for battling the Taleban as most of the 100,000 foreign troops prepare to exit by the end of 2014.
Australia said yesterday it was withdrawing the bulk of its 1,550 troops this year, with the closure of their main base in Uruzgan Province.
“We’ve been there for over a decade, and that’s far too long,” Defense Minister Stephen Smith said, adding that the war was “the easiest thing in the world to get in, hardest thing in the world to get out.”
Karzai is due to step down at elections next year, 13 years after he came to power with US backing when the Taleban regime was ousted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001.
During his trip, Kerry emphasized the importance of a credible poll in 2014, and paid tribute to Afghan lawmakers, rights activists and election officials.
“You’re engaged in a remarkable effort and the whole world is watching,” he told them on yesterday before he flew out of Kabul.
The war in Afghanistan is increasingly unpopular in the United States, and the latest outbursts from Karzai led many US commentators to call for Washington to take a tougher stance toward Kabul.
Washington was concerned that the handover of Bagram to Afghan forces would allow suspected Taleban and Al-Qaeda detainees to return to the battlefield.
But a final agreement was sealed on Saturday and a handover ceremony was held at the jail shortly before Kerry landed in Afghanistan.
5 policemen killed in suicide attack
Eight suicide bombers struck a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least five officers, a security official said.
The attack in Jalalabad, about 120 km east of Kabul, came on the second day of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the Afghan capital.
First, an insurgent in an explosives-laden car detonated his vehicle in front of the Jalalabad Police Quick Reaction Force.
Then, seven other attackers wearing vests rigged with explosives stormed the compound, police said.
Three attackers blew themselves up inside the complex while police shot the remaining four during a gunfight that lasted more than an hour.
Some of the attackers wore uniforms resembling those worn by the US-led NATO coalition, said police chief Mohammad Sharif Amin in Nangarhar province, where Jalalabad is the capital.
Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
In other violence, a roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded another in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province, the governor’s office there said.
Afghan insurgents have in recent months been carrying out complex attacks involving car bombs and gunmen with explosives-laden vests against government and police buildings around the country.
The attacks are expected to intensify as the traditional spring fighting season gets under way. Heavy snow and bad weather conditions usually put a damper on fighting during the harsh Afghan winter.
On March 14, Afghan intelligence service seized a massive truck bomb packed with eight tons of explosives on the eastern outskirts of Kabul. They also killed five suspected suicide bombers and arrested two others during a raid to seize the truck.
The truck was apparently meant to carry out an attack on a NATO facility in the capital. According to Afghan intelligence, the truck bomb bore the hallmarks of the Haqqani network, which is known for conducting spectacular attacks.
Affiliated with the Taleban, the network is run by the Haqqani family and is based across the border in Pakistan.
