2017 to be a tough year for the Afghan forces: US defense secretary

The United States Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has said the ongoing year of 2017 will be another tough year for the Afghan security forces.

Mr. Mattis arrived in Afghanistan in an unannounced visit on Monday to meet with the Afghan officials and the officials of the US forces and the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

Speaking during a press conference on Monday afternoon, Mattis said “2017’s going to be another tough year for the valiant Afghan security forces and the international troops who have stood and will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Afghanistan against terrorism and against those who seek to undermine the legitimate United Nations-recognized government of this nation.”

Mattis condemned the deadly attack on the Shaheen Army Corps in North of Afghanistan, saying “And, as if we needed a reminder, as I stand here before you, of the type of enemy that we’re up against, the killing of Afghan citizens, soldiers, protectors of the people, just as they were coming out of a mosque, you know, coming out of a house of worship — it certainly characterizes this fight for exactly what it is.”

He also added that President Trump has directed a review of our policy in Afghanistan as the new administration takes hold in Washington. “This dictates an on-going dialogue with Afghanistan’s leadership, and that’s why I came here.”

“I talked again with President Ghani, with his ministers, and heard directly and at length from the NATO commander, General Nicholson, in — in order to provide my best assessment and advice as we go forward, advice to the president, to the NATO secretary general and all the troop-contributing nations with whom I coordinate and collaborate,” he added.

Source Khaama Press

Лекториум он-лайн

[youtube_channel resource=0 cache=0 random=true fetch=25 num=1 ratio=3 responsive=1 width=306 display=thumbnail norel=1 nobrand=1 showtitle=above desclen=0 noanno=1 noinfo=1 link_to=none goto_txt="Visit our YouTube channel"]

You Might Also Like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>