**Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has visited the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah for the first time since it was retaken in a major offensive.**He promised elders that the town would be rebuilt after fierce fighting, and appealed to local people for support.
They voiced their backing, but also regaled him with a list of complaints including corruption, looting, arrests and searches by Nato troops.
Marjah was recaptured during Operation Moshtarak by Afghan and Nato troops.
Mr Karzai was joined in the town by the top US commander in Afghanistan.
Gen Stanley McChrystal, who leads about 121,000 US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, sat on the floor while Mr Karzai addressed the elders. The general listened through an interpreter but did not speak.
Schools ‘occupied’
Mr Karzai was on his first visit to Marjah, in the southern province of Helmand, since it was stormed by Nato and US forces on 13 February.
“It’s a source of sadness that they have suffered from the Afghan government and foreigners”
Hamid Karzai
Afghan President
Afghan Taliban clash with rivals
“Today I’m here to listen to you and to hear your problems,” the president told about 300 elders gathered in a mosque.
He promised to improve security, open schools and invest in roads and clinics.
“Are you with me or against me” he asked them.
They raised their hands and shouted: “We are with you. We are supporting you.”
Bu they also complained that civilians had been killed in the fighting, that local people had been arrested and their houses searched by foreign troops, and that schools had been turned into bases for Western forces.
“I had the opportunity to meet people and talk to them. At the same time, it’s a source of sadness that they have suffered from the Afghan government and foreigners,” Mr Karzai later told reporters.
“The promises we have made of security and reconstruction, we will fulfil them.”
The offensive by Nato and US troops, codenamed Operation Moshtarak, has been described as the biggest since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The aim has been to seize areas under Taliban control, set up effective government and deliver rapid improvements to local conditions.