ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan: Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on Saturday, calling on insurgents to lay down their arms and locals to join the government security forces. Karzai rarely travels to the provinces. The southern region of Kandahar is the heartland of the nine-year Taliban insurgency and one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, where record numbers of Western troops are being killed. Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops are fighting to control Kandahar city in Operation Dragon Strike considered crucial to a US strategy hoping to beat back the Taliban and strengthen Karzai's government. Karzai flew by NATO helicopter to the Arghandab district headquarters with US General David Petraeus, the commander of 152,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, US ambassador Karl Eikenberry, cabinet ministers and the Kandahar governor. He was briefed by Afghan and US generals on the operation, then addressed hundreds of local elders. “Once again, and from Arghandab, I call on the Taliban to stop fighting, to stop killing their brothers and elders,” Karzai told the crowd. Karzai said young men who fell in with the Taliban should be nurtured by their families and brought back into the fold, rather than disowned. “Taliban are the sons of this land. When children go astray, no one throws their children away but instead tries to take care of them, treat them and bring them to the right path,” he said. – Agence France
