Cameron Praises Ghani's Power

Bloomberg News

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron landed in Kabul today for an unannounced visit to meet with new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who took office four days ago.

Cameron flew into the Afghan capital on a C-17 military transport plane after earlier meeting with an air crew at a U.K. base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, from where British bombers are flying sorties against Islamic State militants in Iraq.

The U.K. is winding down combat operations 13 years after first sending forces to Afghanistan as part of an international coalition to fight the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The focus of the fight against Islamic militants has now shifted to Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State has seized a swath of the two countries, carrying out mass executions and beheading western journalists.

'We are fighting a generational struggle against Islamist extremist terrorism,' Cameron told reporters in Kabul before talks with Ghani and other officials. 'It had its original furnace here where al-Qaeda was based. It no longer has that presence because al-Qaeda are no longer based here, but you can see Islamist extremist terrorism with Boko Haram in Nigeria; with al-Qaeda in Yemen and of course with ISIL in Iraq and Syria.'

'This is a battle that we are going to be engaged in for many many years,' Cameron added.

U.K. pilots have already flown a dozen sorties and carried out strikes on four of those missions, hitting eight targets and helping Iraqi forces hold territory but also push back ISIL too, Cameron said in a statement earlier after landing in Akrotiri. 'We want to make sure that we can keep up this tempo in the days ahead so we will deploy a further two Tornados to Akrotiri in the next 24 hours.'

U.K. Troops

In Afghanistan, the U.K. now has about 1,300 soldiers at its main base, Camp Bastion, in the southern province of Helmand. The U.K. deployment peaked at about 9,500 troops, and stood at 5,200 at the beginning of this year. By year-end, the Ministry of Defence says 'a small number of soldiers' will remain to train Afghan soldiers and police officers.

A total of 453 British soldiers have been killed during the Afghanistan campaign, according to Ministry of Defence data.

'The promise I made in 2010 that all our troops would get out by the end of 2014, that commitment is being kept,' Cameron said in Kabul. 'Vital work has been done,' he said, adding: 'When you compare Afghanistan in 2001 with Afghanistan today, the country has been transformed.'

Ghani Pledge

Ghani came to power pledging to tackle endemic corruption and tap Afghanistan's mineral wealth to reduce dependence on foreign aid that funds about 60 percent of the country's budget. A day after assuming the presidency on Sept. 29, he signed security agreements to keep the U.S. and allied troops in the country beyond this year.

Cameron also met with Abdullah Abdullah, the runner-up in the country's disputed election, who Ghani made chief executive officer of his government as part of a power-sharing agreement to avoid violence.

While the U.K. Ministry of Defence says Taliban violence will continue in Afghanistan, ministers have highlighted progress since the 2001 invasion. At the Conservative Party conference two days ago, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said in a speech that Britain and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have helped train 350,000 Afghan police and soldiers.

Eight million people voted in elections this year, and 7 million children now attend schools, including 3 million girls whose education was restricted under the Taliban, Fallon said.

Britain has pledged 178 million pounds ($287 million) in annual development aid through 2017 to help Asia's poorest nation. A total of 70 million pounds a year will go to develop Afghan security forces.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in Kabul at amorales2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net Andy Sharp, Sunil Jagtiani