Obama Assures Afghanistan To Provide More Support: Karzai

November 23, 2008 7:48 a.m. EST

Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai claims that President-elect Barack Obama has promised that his administration will provide more support to his war-torn country, according to a statement released by Afghan Presidential Palace on Sunday.

The statement follows talks between the two leaders over the phone on Saturday.

The issued statement said that Obama has assured President Karzai that the United States would pay more attention towards the country and send more aid to help the government.

"The United States is committed to bringing peace and security to Afghanistan and in this regard U.S. would continue to further support the Afghan government and Afghan people," the statement quoted Obama as saying, according to Xinhua.

President-elect Obama has reportedly emphasized the importance of the cooperation between the authorities in the U.S. and Afghanistan to tackle terrorism and increase security in the region.

The number of attacks on the government and security officials have increased in Afghanistan as the U.S.-led coalition forces and the local police have launched a few intense operations to comb out rebels from their stronghold regions.

In a seperate news, NATO-led troops have reportedly killed a senior Taliban commander in the southern Helmand province in Afghanistan, according to a statement by the military alliance on Sunday.

The officials said that the security forces have confirmed that Mullah Assad was killed in an operation on Wednesday. However, the military alliance did not disclose the exact location where the operation was carried out.

So far this year, as many as 5,000 people, mostly militants, have been killed in Afghanistan. There are around 70,000 foreign security forces supporting in the operations carried out by the Afghan troops to flush out Taliban militia from the region.