Photo op with British PM Gordon Brown and Karzai

(10 Dec 2007) SHOTLIST
1. Afghan President Hamid Karzai walking past honour guard to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
2. Brown gets out of car and shakes hands with Karzai
3. Brown and Karzai standing and listening to military band
4. Various of Brown and Karzai
5. Brown and Karzai walking past honour guard
6. Pan from military band to wide of Brown and Karzai walking past honour guard
7. Brown and Karzai pause for photo-op
8. Brown and Karzai shaking hands and entering building followed by officials
STORYLINE
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown travelled to Afghanistan on Monday and met with President Hamid Karzai in the capital Kabul.
Brown held talks with Karzai after travelling to the main British military base in southern Afghanistan earlier in the day to boost the spirits of troops serving on the front line of an increasingly deadly fight against Taliban militants.
Brown's visit, the second stop on a trip that also took him to Iraq, comes amid a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) operation to retake a Taliban-controlled town, Musa Qala, in the area where British troops operate.
A Taliban spokesman said on Monday that militants had fled the town to avoid civilian and Taliban casualties.
Afghan troops aided by British and US forces entered Musa Qala on Monday for the first time since last February, when Taliban militants overran it following a failed peace deal between fighters and Afghan elders that had been backed by Britain.
At least 40 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year and 86 have died in the country since 2001.
This year has been the deadliest since the US-led invasion in 2001.
More than 6,200 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an AP tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...