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Updated: 10:44 PM EST

Karzai Sworn In As Afghan President

By STEPHEN GRAHAM, AP

 

KABUL, Afghanistan (Dec. 7) -- President Hamid Karzai took the helm Tuesday of a country whose revival is threatened by a surging opium trade and a persistent Taliban insurgency, pledging to bring stability and prosperity to Afghanistan even as rebels staged attacks near the Pakistani border.

With the speeches over and foreign dignitaries departing his solemn swearing-in ceremony, the affable Karzai begins a challenging five-year term under pressure to heal ethnic divisions and repair the war-ravaged nation's decrepit infrastructure.

Wearing his trademark green robe and lambskin hat and with his right hand on a copy of Islam's holy book, the Quran, Karzai appeared jittery as he repeated an oath of allegiance read to him by the white-bearded chief justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari.

But he recovered his poise in a confident speech before 600 guests who included Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, outlining his agenda to meet Afghans' sky-high expectations.

He singled out America - which still has 18,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is providing billions of dollars in aid - for particular thanks, while underlining the continued need for international support.

''Our fight against terrorism is not yet over,'' he said, warning of a deadly nexus between extremists and drug traffickers. ''A decisive victory over terrorism requires serious and continuous cooperation at regional and international levels.''

Afghan and international forces keen to protect Karzai's inauguration mounted their biggest security operation since the Oct. 9 election that gave him a landslide victory. Still, rebel assaults before dawn near the Pakistani frontier provided a reminder of the threat to the country's stability.

Dozens of suspected Taliban rebels armed with assault rifles and rockets attacked an Afghan military base in Khost province, sparking a firefight that killed four Afghan soldiers and at least six militants, an Afghan commander said.

Also in Khost, insurgents fired on a U.S. patrol, which shot back and killed two of the assailants, a U.S. spokesman, Maj. Mark McCann, said. No Americans were reported hurt.

An effort by militants to fire a rocket at Kabul late Monday was less successful, a NATO spokesman said. The rocket landed harmlessly on a cattle farm outside the city limits.

Cheney, the most senior American official to visit Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was ousted three years ago, met briefly with Karzai and emerged to laud him as a wise leader and an admired international statesman.

Earlier, the vice president told a group of U.S. soldiers, ''For the first time the people of this country are looking confident about the future of freedom and peace.''

Rumsfeld, who like Cheney left Afghanistan Tuesday evening, cautioned that the military mission is not over.

''There are still groups, extremists, that would like to take this country back - the Taliban, the al-Qaida - and use it for a base for terrorist activities around the world as they did on 9/11. But it's not going to happen,'' Rumsfeld told a group of special forces soldiers at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul.

Still, critics say the focus on holding elections and searching for Osama bin Laden have diverted energy from rebuilding Afghanistan's institutions and clearing the country of weapons to weaken the power of warlords and lessen the danger of ethnic divisions exploding once foreign forces leave.

Karzai's aides insist no warlords will be in his new Cabinet, which is to be announced within the next week. But many of the faction leaders who were tainted by their role in Afghanistan's brutal civil wars and still hold sway over remote provinces were prominent at the president's inauguration.

Hakim Dadwal, a 30-year-old farmer who said he had come from Khost province to celebrate Karzai's installation expressed the hopes and anxieties of many ordinary people.

''It's a very important day, and I want to congratulate each and every Afghan,'' he said, taking a break from a bout of traditional Afghan dancing in a Kabul square. ''After 22 years of fighting, we see the sun rising in Afghanistan.

''But I still want the warlords to give up their weapons, big and small. We have very bad memories of the past times, when there was a gun in every hand.''

AP-NY-12-07-04 18:35 EST

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

 

Updated: 11:10 PM EST

Cheney Meets With Troops in Afghanistan

By ROBERT BURNS, AP

 

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Dec. 6) - Vice President Dick Cheney congratulated U.S. troops for helping give democracy a chance to take root in Afghanistan.

"For the first time the people of this country are looking confident about the future of freedom and peace," Cheney told a group of soldiers Tuesday morning at Bagram Air Base, just hours before a ceremony to inaugurate President Hamid Karzai.

Cheney was leading a U.S. delegation that included Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad.

The vice president recounted the role of U.S. forces in destroying the Taliban regime, which had harbored the al-Qaida terrorist network blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"The dictatorship that harbored the most vicious terrorist network in history is now history," Cheney said.

The vice president cautioned that work remains to be done. "Freedom still has enemies here in Afghanistan and you are here to make those enemies miserable," he said.

Later, Rumsfeld met with some U.S. commanders and addressed a group of special forces soldiers at the same air base. He noted the historic occasion of the presidential inauguration but, like Cheney, cautioned that the military mission here is not over.

"There are still groups, extremists, that would like to take this country back - the Taliban, the al-Qaida - and use it for a base for terrorist activities around the world as they did on 9/11," Rumsfeld said. "But it's not going to happen."

12/06/04 22:47 EST

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.