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Karzai visits Marjah for first time since Taliban routed in US-led offensive
8 Mar 2010 8:59
source : Afghan Voice Agency(AVA)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah on Sunday, which was re-taken in a February US-led offensive. Karzai asked wary residents to back his government in return for security and reconstruction projects.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday visited the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah and appealed to wary residents to back his government after a fierce military offensive.
It was Karzai's first visit to Marjah since some 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops stormed the region in southern Helmand province on February 13, determined to wrest it from the insurgents and drug traffickers.
Arriving in the bomb-scarred town, the Western-backed leader met about 300 local elders and asked them to support his government in return for security and reconstruction projects.
"The promises that we have made for security and reconstruction, we will fulfil them," he told the gathering.
"Are you with me or against me?" Karzai asked the turbaned and bearded elders packed in the town's mosque.
The elders shouted: "We are with you, we are supporting you", but during the meeting some of them expressed concern about former corrupt local officials.
The two-week Operation Mushtarak -- Dari for "Together" -- symbolically ended on February 25 when authorities hoisted the Afghan flag in Marjah, a poppy-growing southern area that had eluded government control for years.
Sporadic resistance in Marjah and Nad Ali district continues, however, with deadly bombs planted by retreating Taliban fighters hampering efforts to completely secure the area.
