US reiterates persistence in pursuing Afghan mission

The US has reiterated its persistence on moving forward with the Afghan mission and helping Kabul's government fight Al Qaeda and its allies ensuring security in the country and protecting its borders. "We work with President Karzai and the Afghan government to try to mitigate some of the tensions that understandably exist in a situation like this, but only insofar as they don't compromise our national security interests," said White House spokesman Jay Carney in a statement published on the White House website. "We can't forget what the mission is, though, and the fact that the need to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda remains. The need to prevent Afghanistan from being a haven for al Qaeda to launch attacks against the United States remains. And we will continue in that effort," he added. In response to a question on why the US troops support Afghan soldiers despite the fact that the latter kill them, Carney said: "The incidents that you refer to are tragic and horrific and indefensible, there's no question. But it is important to remember that 95 to 97% of the missions the US forces embark on in Afghanistan, they do so with their Afghan partners. We're talking about thousands and thousands of operations that proceed successfully with Afghan partners without anything like this happening." Violence has erupted in Afghanistan last week following a Quran-burning incident at a US base.