US President Barack Obama has made a surprise visit to Afghanistan for a first-hand look at the eight-year-old war he inherited and has dramatically escalated.
After an overnight flight from Washington, the president landed in Afghanistan for a stay of just a few hours, all in darkness, before returning to the US.
Mr Obama flew by helicopter from Bagram airfield to the capital, where he was meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and with his cabinet at the presidential palace.
It was the president's second stop in a war zone as commander in chief, coming about a year after a similarly secretive trip to Iraq.
Mr Karzai was notified about the visit just an hour before he arrived, the White House said.
In December, Mr Obama ordered 30,000 additional forces into the fight against an entrenched Taliban insurgency that seeks to retake the control of Afghanistan that the militant group lost when the US invaded in 2001.
Those new US troops are still arriving and most are expected to be in place by summer, for a full force of roughly 100,000 US troops. There were about 34,000 when Obama took office.
The trip came just two days after a threatening new audio message from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, believed to be hiding along the ungoverned border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The White House made no advance announcement of the visit, which officials said had been long desired by the president but delayed by weather and other logistical obstacles.
( source: Press Association)
