Afghan president meets with tribal elders in south
Associated Press, Arghandab, Afghanistan | Sat, 10/09/2010 4:10 PM
President Hamid Karzai visited volatile southern Afghanistan on Saturday to meet tribal elders, and NATO announced four service members were killed by insurgents in the west.
Gen. David Petraeus, top commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry accompanied Karzai, who is expected to rally residents to support the international forces and the Afghan government.
Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak and Turyalai Wesa, governor of Kandahar province, were also among the group visiting Kandahar's restive Arghandab district.
Kandahar is the scene of NATO's Operation Dragon Strike, targeting the Taliban in their southern strongholds. The operation in the province aims to rout insurgents from areas they have long controlled.
Karzai and his entourage visited the famous Baba Sahib shrine on Saturday.
More than 200 tribal leaders assembled to see Karzai.
Meanwhile, four NATO troops were killed in an insurgent attack Saturday in western Afghanistan.
NATO did not release the nationalities of the service members killed, or provide a specific location where the attack occurred.
The deaths brought to 24 the number of NATO forces killed this month. At least 2,012 NATO service members have died since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, according to an Associated Press count.
