The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kabul

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied here Thursday the allied strategy to stabilise Afghanistan was failing, saying it was incomplete and needed innovation to crush "determined enemies." Rice made her case during a press conference in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband who accompanied her on a surprise visit here amid growing fears for Afghanistan's future. "You have determined enemies. We know that. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda continue to make life difficult" for ordinary Afghans, the top US diplomat told Karzai in the highly fortified and snow-covered presidential palace. She said the NATO-led force and Afghan security forces had to focus much more on fighting new Taliban tactics such as suicide bombings and kidnappings after large-scale offensives mounted by the militants had failed.