Gates meets with troops fighting Taliban in southern Afghanistan

Gates meets with troops in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates got a closer view of the Afghanistan war Tuesday, with a visit to troops fighting the Taliban in the country’s rugged south.

Gates flew to Kandahar early Tuesday for meetings with U.S. and British generals overseeing the current military campaign in Marjah.

Gates presented Silver Stars for valor to two Army aviators before scheduled visits with U.S. forces at small forward operating bases elsewhere in the south.

On Monday, the Pentagon chief said the progress made in the Marjah offensive, launched last month, is encouraging, but he stopped short of saying the war is at a turning point. The Marjah campaign routed most Taliban fighters from a town they once controlled, without a high casualty toll for U.S. troops and the Afghan security forces fighting alongside them.

“People still need to understand there is some very hard fighting, very hard days ahead,” Gates told reporters.

Gates met Monday in Kabul with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal said preparations have begun for a crucial campaign to assert Afghan government control over Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban.

Gates traveled to Afghanistan to check on the progress of the war’s expansion, directed late last year by President Barack Obama.

The 30,000 additional U.S. forces Obama ordered are now arriving and most will be in place by summer. Without being specific, McChrystal suggested that any heavy fighting in Kandahar will wait until more U.S. and NATO troops are ready.