Pullout 'will lead to attacks'

2005-12-22 11:35

Afghanistan - Defence secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said an early withdrawal from Afghanistan or Iraq would lead to new terrorist attacks on Americans at home.

Rumsfeld spoke on Thursday to several hundred soldiers in a heated tent at this base that serves as the main airfield for US forces in Afghanistan.

"If we were to withdraw from Afghanistan precipitously, or from Iraq, the terrorists would attack us first somewhere else and then they would attack us at home, let there be no doubt," he said.

Rumsfeld thanked the soldiers for their service.

"The momentous changes here could not have happened without your service," he said.

Earlier in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, Rumsfeld said reducing the number of US troops in Afghanistan will not weaken the campaign against Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda terrorists who still threaten this war-torn country.

"We certainly remain committed to our long-term relationship, the strategic partnership between our two countries," Rumsfeld said on Wednesday outside the heavily guarded presidential palace after meeting with President Hamad Karzai.

Continue to root out Taliban, al-Qaeda

Rumsfeld spoke a day after he announced that the size of the US force in Afghanistan will shrink from about 19 000 now to about 16 000 by next summer.

"We will continue to be focused on rooting out the Taliban and al-Qaeda that still exist in causing difficulties for your country," Rumsfeld told Karzai.

Karzai told reporters that the US government has assured the Afghans that a drawdown of US forces will not undermine joint efforts to improve security.

There are about 26 800 soldiers in the Afghan national army and about 55 000 national police.

Rumsfeld said the remaining US troops would continue to help train and equip the Afghan security forces and will work with Nato on a variety of security projects.

Rumsfeld told Karzai it was his 10th visit to Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in October 2001 that deposed the Taliban rulers.

More than four years later, US forces have captured neither al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who had used Afghanistan as a base before the US invasion, nor Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Rumsfeld told reporters that Bin Laden, if still alive, is most likely hiding in the Afghan-Pakistani border area.

- AP