Obama meets with Afghan president

Obama meets with Afghan president

U.S. President Barack Obama met here Tuesday with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, their first encounter since Obama laid out his plans for a U.S. transition of security lead in June.

Obama denounced as a "senseless act of violence" the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president who was serving as chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council.

Rabbani was killed in a suicide attack at his residence in Kabul on Tuesday night, an act claimed by the Taliban, which has launched a series of high-profile attacks in recent months including one on an CH-47 Chinook helicopter that left dead 30 soldiers of the U.S. Special Force, and another on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

According to the White House, Obama called Rabbani's death a " tragic loss," saying "He was a man who cared very deeply about Afghanistan."

"We both believe that despite this incident that we will not be deterred from creating a path whereby Afghans can live in freedom, safety, security and prosperity," Obama said.

Karzai called Rabbani "an Afghan patriot who sacrificed his life." "This will not deter us from continuing down the path we have started," he added.

The Afghan president was leaving the United Nations meeting early to fly back to Afghanistan, the White House said.

Obama announced in June that 10,000 U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and another 23,000 will return home by September 2012.

The U.S. forces began to pull out of Afghanistan in July, with an ultimate goal of transferring lead security responsibility to the Afghan forces by 2014.

Rabbani, an aged former Mujahdeen leader, was selected by Karzai as chairman of the High Peace Council in October 2010. The 70-member council was set up that month to broker peace with the Taliban forces.

Editor: yan

English.news.cn   2011-09-21 03:12:42 FeedbackPrintRSS
NEW YORK, Sept. 20 (Xinhua)