Taliban claim win after US leaves 'Valley of Death'

Thu Apr 15, 2010, 5:53 am ET

KABUL (AFP) –

Taliban fighters on Thursday claimed victory after the US military withdrew this week from a rebel-infested area in eastern Afghanistan that became known as the "Valley of Death".

Troops pulled back from Korengal, a rugged mountainous region in Kunar province bordering Pakistan, as part of what NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said was its new "repositioning" strategy.

The commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, is looking to concentrate his counter-insurgency campaign against the Taliban in more populated areas.

"The move does not prevent forces from rapidly responding, as necessary, to crises there in Korengal and in other parts of the region, as well," ISAF commander General David Rodriguez said in a statement.

But an Afghan defence official said withdrawal could play into the hands of the Taliban, who have been fighting an increasingly deadly war against the foreign forces who ousted them from power in late 2001.

"Not only Korengal but any area that is abandoned is good for the Taliban. The enemy benefits from it. They can mass there, they can benefit from the population there," the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The Taliban, the main insurgent group that controls several districts in southern and eastern parts of the country, were quick to seize on the US withdrawal, after years of fierce fighting in the sparsely populated valley.

"It's a great victory for us," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"The area is very, very important for us. Its mountains provide us a good hideout, it can be used as a training ground and lead our operations across the region from there," he said.

"US troops fled under our constant attacks."

The withdrawal coincides with a gradual increase in foreign forces in Afghanistan before a planned military push against the Taliban in their spiritual heartland of Kandahar, in the south of the country.

Troops levels are expected to increase from the current 126,000 to 150,000 in the coming months.

Obama reaffirms 2011 Afghanistan withdrawal

U.S. and allies “can’t be there in perpetuity,” president says in interview

NBC Video: Politics

April 15, 2010

SYDNEY -

President Barack Obama reaffirmed on Thursday his plans to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2011.

Speaking in an interview with Australian television broadcast Thursday, Obama said of Afghanistan that United States and its allies "can't be there in perpetuity."

Obama told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he did not agree that the situation in Afghanistan was getting worse, saying the Taliban's momentum had been "blunted" since he came to office.

But winning the nearly nine-year-old war remained a difficult task, he said.

The interview comes ahead of a planned trip by Obama to Australia and Indonesia in June.

He also said he was confident Afghan President Hamid Karzai can stabilize his war-torn nation but that Washington would continue to press him to introduce essential reforms to improve living standards.

Obama's comments seek to end a war of words between Kabul and Washington that have tested ties in recent weeks.

"I think that President Karzai is capable of leading his country into the 21st century and stabilizing it," Obama told 'The 7.30 Report' program.

"But what we have said is that we can't succeed unless President Karzai moves forward on the reforms that are so necessary for Afghans to see a real investment in their lives day-to-day and improvement in their lives day-to-day."

Obama said the United States was not in Afghanistan to support one man, but to secure U.S. national security.

Spat with Karzai Karzai sparked a spat with Washington recently by accusing Western countries and officials of perpetrating election fraud in Afghanistan, in comments the White House called "disturbing" and untrue, and the State Department called "preposterous."

Karzai also said there was a fine line between cooperation and occupation, and that Afghans had to see that their government was not made up of "puppets."

Tensions between Karzai and the West come at a particularly awkward time, when the U.S.-led force is planning the biggest operation of the war to regain full control of the southern city of Kandahar, Karzai's home town and heartland of the Taliban.

"I do think is he's a proud man, I think he has a strong sense of Afghan nationalism, and he's under a very difficult circumstance," Obama said.

"I think that you've seen actually some reforms in the Karzai government that allow us to then actually get civilian help to ordinary Afghans and that then builds trust in the government.

"I think we've got some positive trends but there is no doubt that this is a difficult task. We need to begin drawing down our troops in 2011, and start handing over more and more responsibility to the Afghans."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36545654