Obama warns of fresh challenges in Afghan war

THE war in Afghanistan will get worse before it gets better, President Barack Obama said yesterday, but he declared his plan to begin withdrawing US forces next year remains on track.

“What I’ve tried to emphasise is the fact that there is going to be some hard fighting over the next several months,” Obama said at a White House news conference with Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

He spoke as the US-led foreign army in Afghanistan gets ready for a push into the Taliban’s birthplace in Kandahar Province. The campaign for Kandahar, which is to begin in earnest in June, is expected to be among the bloodiest of the nearly nine-year-old war.