Gates makes unannounced Afghan trip

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived unannounced Monday in Afghanistan, where the NATO-led anti-Taliban offensive in Helmand was in its 24th day.

Gates planned to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, CNN reported.

The 15,000-strong "Operation Moshtarak" campaign, made up of U.S., British and other coalition forces and Afghan security forces, has largely driven out Taliban fighters from their stronghold towns in southern Helmand province with the next operation set for in neighboring Kandahar province.

Gates told reporters he wanted to "get an update on the campaign, not only in Marja (a Helmand town now controlled by the U.S. Marines) but the next steps as we look to spring, summer and fall," CNN reported.

CNN reported Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also had been scheduled to arrive in Kabul Monday, but that Iranian state-run media said the visit had been put off until next week.

"Iran is playing a double game in Afghanistan," Gates told reporters during his flight to Afghanistan. "They want to maintain a good relationship with the Afghan government. They also want to do everything they possibly can to hurt us, or for us not to be successful."

The New York Times reported Gates gave no date for the Kandahar campaign but said "there is some very hard fighting, very hard days ahead."

The Times also quoted Gates as saying about 6,000 of the additional 30,000 U.S. forces had arrived in Afghanistan, with the rest expected by the end of August.