Merkel meets Karzai
German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan today to visit German troops and meet President Hamid Karzai.
It was Merkel’s first trip to Afghanistan, where Germany has some 3,000 troops stationed in the relatively peaceful north.
Germany has resisted pleas by Nato officials to send troops to the country’s south, scene of the heaviest fighting.
Germany’s lower house of parliament last month approved extending the deployment of troops and six reconnaissance jets for another year despite mounting public scepticism about the mission.
