Obama holds Afghan war meeting

US President Barack Obama has convened his war cabinet with top military and intelligence officials to get an update on the US-led occupation of Afghanistan.

Obama was briefed on the latest situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan by his top aides during the Friday session in the so-called ‘Situation Room’ of the White House.

In the convention, US General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US military in war-ravaged Afghanistan, spoke, via video link, of “continued progress” on the ground against Taliban forces.

“We were largely through the clearing phase and more rapidly moving to a phase of hold, which puts a premium obviously on good governance,” AFP quoted White House spokesman Robert Gibbs Gibbs as saying on the continued occupation of the country.

He also quoted McChrystal as saying that the US military is keeping Obama’s commitment to send 30,000 additional US troops to the hotspots.

“We were on schedule on our force flow in getting additional forces approved by the president into Afghanistan by the end of summer,” he noted.

Militancy in Afghanistan has worsened in recent months despite US plans to fortify military and deploy extra troops in the war-ravaged country.

The heads of top US intelligence agencies were also present at the meeting of which no detailed report has been published.