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February 14, 2009

US Envoy Meets Afghan President
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Talks expected to focus on fighting growing Taliban insurgency 
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and US special envoy Richard
Holbrooke at Presidential Palace in Kabul, 14 Feb 2009The new U.S. envoy
to Afghanistan and Pakistan has held talks with
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, amid a downturn in U.S.-Afghan relations.
Richard
Holbrooke met with Mr. Karzai Saturday in Kabul for talks expected to
focus on fighting the growing Taliban insurgency. They made no public
statements afterward. But Mr. Karzai told the Arabic television
network Al-Jazeera on Friday there is tension between the U.S. and
Afghan governments related to civilian casualties, the arrests of
Afghans, and nightly raids on homes and the casualties they cause. Mr.
Karzai and the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama have had
limited communication since Mr. Obama took office on January 20.Earlier
Saturday, Holbrooke met with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar
Spanta. In violence Saturday, Afghan police say two separate bombings
have killed a local official and four police officers. Police in eastern
Khost province say a roadside bomb killed the district chief, Baitul
Zaman Sabari, in Nadir Shah Kot. In
southern Afghanistan, police say another roadside bomb hit a police
vehicle in Kandahar province late Friday, killing four policemen. This
is Richard Holbrooke's first trip to the region since President Obama
named him special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan. On
Wednesday, Taliban militants launched deadly attacks on three
government ministries in the Afghan capital. Mr. Obama is
pledging to re-evaluate U.S. counterterrorism strategy in the region.
He is expected to announce how many additional troops he will send to
Afghanistan in the coming days. Holbrooke previously visited Pakistan on
his trip to the region. He is expected to also stop in India.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


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