US 'very concerned' about Karzai attack
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House said Monday that it was "very concerned" by a weekend attack which saw Afghan President Hamid Karzai survive a hail of rockets and bullets that killed three people.
"Thankfully, President Karzai was not harmed. Unfortunately, and very sadly, eleven others were wounded and I'm not exactly sure the number who lost their lives," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
"We are very concerned about it, the terrorist threat is real, it is deadly, and defeating this enemy has to be a top priority of the United States, of the Afghan government, of the Iraqi government, and the NATO alliance who is there working with the Afghan government," she told reporters.
"I think that they'll continue to look at how they could have done better in order to make sure that this does not happen again," said Perino.
Afghanistan authorities were investigating how militants could get within 500 meters (yards) of Karzai and other top leaders to carry out a brazen attack on the nation's biggest annual military parade.
The insurgent Taliban movement said it launched Sunday's attack to show it had the power to strike even such a high-profile ceremony.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, while hosting talks with Kai Eide, the new United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, told reporters that the authorities in Kabul would prevail.
"What it (the attack) underscores for me ... is that Afghanistan has ... determined enemies who will do anything to try and disrupt the democratic progress that the Afghan people have made," Rice said.
"President Karzai is a strong leader, and he has responded, I think, in a strong fashion to this. They will certainly find the perpetrators and bring them to justice," she added.
Rice said that Afghanistan is "a young democracy" emerging from decades of civil war that must tackle poverty, build an economy, govern itself better and bolster security, but it "is going to succeed" with UN and NATO help.
Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, said he was pleased with US and Afghan support for him as well as with a "sharper mandate" for the UN in Afghanistan, but called for greater financial support.
"It will be important that donors, who have perhaps not been too generous in the past, try to mobilize resources that the government of Afghanistan need," he said.
