Focus on Afghan mission to continue: White House

WASHINGTON (PAN, the White House said on Friday.

President Barack Obama had laid out an Afghanistan strategy that he had been executing effectively, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

“We will continue to focus our efforts on executing that policy that brought a surge in forces; that allowed us to focus our efforts on taking the fight to Al Qaeda,” Carney told reporters.

The goal included stabilising Afghanistan to give the government there breathing room, to help train Afghan security forces so that the US could then draw down its forces, he said in response to a question.

On the killing of six US soldiers in a helicopter crash and the French threat to withdraw from Afghanistan, the official said: “So that process is in place. It’s a process that we obviously are significantly engaged in, but it includes all of our ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) partners.”

He hailed France as a valued member of the NATO-led ISAF, saying its troops had served alongside Americans with valour and honour. The US was in regular consultation with all of its coalition partners, he concluded.

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