KABUL: US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Afghanistan Friday for meetings with military commanders, as the security situation deteriorates with a surge in Taliban attacks and the creeping emergence of the Daesh group. The unannounced visit comes just days after a Pentagon report presented a grim portrait of the war that has inflicted a growing number of casualties on hard-pressed Afghan forces.

“(Carter) has landed” in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said in a brief statement that offered no details on the purpose of his visit.

Two Afghan security officials told AFP that Carter was set to meet Afghan military commanders and American troops at a US base near Jalalabad city in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

The volatile province faces an emerging threat from loyalists of the Daesh group, which is making gradual inroads in Afghanistan, challenging the Taliban on their own turf.

This month marks a year since the US- and NATO-led mission in Afghanistan transitioned into an Afghan-led operation.