German Merkel pays visit to Afghanistan

Kunduz, May 10 – The German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a surprise visit to northern Afghan province of Kundz on Friday, an Afghan official said.

"Chancellor Merkel along with the German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere is paying a visit to Kunduz city the provincial capital of Kunduz province Friday morning," the official who requested anonymity told Xinhua.

Earlier Friday, they paid a brief visit to Mazar-i-Sharif city, capital of neighboring Balkh province, the official said, adding Merkel and de Maiziere will meet the German forces stationed in Kunduz later Friday in the province 250 km north of Kabul.

The visit came days after a German trooper was killed and one was wounded in an insurgent attack in neighboring Baghlan province.

About 4,200 German soldiers have been deployed within the framework of nearly 100,000 NATO-led troops in Afghanistan. Germany offers to station between roughly 600 and 800 soldiers in Afghanistan for a two-year period starting in 2015 after NATO combat operations end in the country, de Maiziere announced in Berlin last month.

The Afghan government forces are taking the lead in providing security as they took full security responsibilities from U.S. and NATO forces in areas where more than 75 percent of the country's 30 million population lives, parts of a process which will run through 2014 when Afghanistan takes over the full leadership of its own security duties.

(Xinhua)