Afghan war ‘will get harder’

US SENATOR John McCain said yesterday that the situation in Afghanistan will get more difficult before it gets easier — “just like the surge in Iraq was” — as the US prepares to pour thousands more troops into the country, including on the doorsteps of Kabul.

The former Republican presidential candidate, who is to report back to President-elect Barack Obama, visited the southern province of Helmand, where he said NATO forces are at a stalemate with insurgents. McCain said the US will focus more on the region — the heartland of the Taliban movement.

“We’re going to have additional troops and additional help,” McCain said of the country’s south.