Afghan explosion hours after Obama visit

Obama’s visit came a year after US special forces troops killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a raid in neighbouring Pakistan.

Shortly after arriving under the cover of darkness, Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a strategic partnership agreement that sets out a long-term US role in Afghanistan, including aid and advisers.

In a televised address to the American people from a base north of Kabul, President Obama said the war in Afghanistan was winding down: “As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home, it’s time to renew America.”

“This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end.”

Nearly 3,000 US and Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban rulers were ousted in 2001.

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Suicide attack

Hours after President Obama left, Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the eastern outskirts of the capital that killed at least six people including a young girl.

The Taliban said it was in response to Obama’s visit and to the long-term strategic partnership deal he signed.

“This attack was to make clear our reaction to Obama’s trip to Afghanistan. The message was that instead of signing of a strategic partnership deal with Afghanistan, he should think about taking his troops out from Afghanistan and leave it to Afghans to rebuild their country,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Hundreds of police and intelligence agency troops surrounded the area around Green Village after the attack. Ruined cars were seen in front of the compound gates but officials said no attackers made it inside the heavily guarded complex.

The Taliban’s Mujahid maintained fighters had made it inside the compound and inflicted “very heavy casualties”. The Islamist group often exaggerates accounts of attacks involving foreign troops or Afghan government targets.

A spokesman for the Nato-led coalition force said the attack had been put down. Western witnesses inside the compound said Afghan commandos killed the attackers, with direction from Norwegian special forces.