Afghan war

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 10 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron said this is a "vital year" in the war in Afghanistan, which may suggest British patience on the war's pace is eroding.

Cameron traveled to Kabul Thursday for his first visit to Afghanistan as prime minister. He met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some of the 10,000 British soldiers deployed to the country.

"This is the vital year," Cameron said. "This is the year when we have to make progress -- progress for the sake of the Afghan people but progress also on behalf of people back at home who want this to work."

This has been a particularly violent week in Afghanistan more than 20 international troops -- including four Americans killed when their helicopter crashed Wednesday after coming under insurgent fire -- have died and a suicide bomber killed dozens at a wedding in Kandahar province.

The area is to be the target of the next coalition offensive, which seeks to clear the region of militant Taliban. U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commands the NATO troops in Afghanistan, said the Kandahar operation will be deliberate and "take a number of months to play out."

McChrystal last winter said Kandahar would be the next area of concentration and similar to an operation in Helmand province, where firefights between international forces and Taliban are still a daily occurrence.