(2 Sep 2010)
AGENCY POOL
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak walking into Afghan Presidential building
2. Wide interior of Gates meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai
3. Various of meeting between Gates and Karzai
AP TELEVISION
++NIGHT SHOTS++
4. Wide of Gates and Karzai entering news conference
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Robert Gates, US Defence Secretary:
"As President Obama has frequently noted, we are not turning off the lights next July. If the Taliban really do believe that America is headed for the exits next summer in large numbers, they will be deeply disappointed and surprised to find us very much in the fight."
6. Mid of Gates and Karzai at news conference
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Robert Gates, US Defence Secretary:
"I do believe I am able to confirm that a very senior official of the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan was the target, and was killed, and this is an individual who was responsible for organising and orchestrating a number of attacks here in Kabul and in northern Afghanistan. This is the first that I had heard that civilians may have been killed and we will certainly look into that."
8. Wide of news conference
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President:
"The reports that we get so far, ten are killed and three wounded in this operation. The nation of the operation and the presence of the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan's personalities or activists have to be determined, but we do know that the parliamentarian, the candidate is wounded and ten are killed. We are investigating it."
10. Cutaway reporter with laptop
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President:
"In the presence of private security firms, we will not have an effective growth of the Afghan police force or the Afghan security forces, so they are almost a parallel government to Afghanistan. Therefore we have decided, after long deliberation with our allies the United States and others, that we cannot sustain them anymore in our country, and I'm glad to tell you that the United States is backing this decision with us, and will see to it that it is implemented."
12. Cutaway of camera
13. Wide of end of news conference
STORYLINE:
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that if Taliban insurgents believe American forces will walk out of Afghanistan next July, they will be disappointed.
Speaking at a news conference in the Afghan capital alongside President Hamid Karzai, Gates said that US forces will remain after the July 2011 date that President Barack Obama has set for the beginning of a pullout, if security permits.
Gates also said on Thursday that a senior member of the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan had been killed in a NATO attack, but Karzai said that this was still yet to be confirmed.
NATO said that the airstrike on a car in northern Takhar province's normally quiet Rustaq district killed or wounded as many as 12 insurgents, including a Taliban commander and a local head of an allied insurgent group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, responsible for attacks in Kabul and elsewhere.
However Karzai - who repeatedly warns that civilian casualties undermine anti-insurgency efforts - said the airstrike had killed 10 campaign workers instead.
"The nation of the operation and the presence of the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan's personalities or activists have to be determined, but we do know that the parliamentarian, the candidate is wounded and ten are killed," he said. "We are investigating it."
Karzai added that the decision was backed by the United States and other allies.
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