U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was greeted by a bomb blast shortly after his arrival in the Afghan capital Kabul on the second leg of an Asian tour.
"President (George) Bush has asked me to come to Afghanistan ... to dramatically make the point that the United States, although we may at present be occupied by Iraq, is not going to forget our responsibilities in Afghanistan and that we are able to do two things at the same time," Armitage told reporters at a press conference. As he spoke, a mysterious explosion shook the capital and rattled houses in the upmarket Wazir Akbar Khan district near the U.S. embassy where he was staying.
| What was so mysterious about it? He was in Afghanistan... |
The cause and location of the blast were not immediately known.
Armitage said U.S. forces would remain in Afghanistan until the country was secure, the same statement echoed by U.S. officials as to the U.S. military presence in Iraq. "The United States will withdraw forces once we're sure that the government of Afghanistan feels perfectly secure and the people of Afghanistan have found necessary stability," he said after a meeting with President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
| "We expect that to happen, oh... two or three weeks after Doomsday..." |
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