US not fighting Afghan people: Clinton reassures

Washington, May 14 (ANI): US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has rubbished reports of the ambitious Kandahar reclamation operation having a devastating effect on the city and its people.

Clinton maintained that Washington has learnt its lessons after the counter-insurgency operations in Iraq.

"They want to have a successful counter-insurgency operation that doesn't destroy Kandahar in the effort to save Kandahar," BBC News quoted Clinton as saying with reference to US commanders in Afghanistan.

"We're not fighting the Afghan people," she added during a visit to the US Institute of Peace with President Karzai.

The goal was "to help the people of Kandahar to recover the entire city to be able to put it to the use and the benefit of the people of Kandahar," she said.

Meanwhile the Obama administration has expressed its willingness to accept the surrender of militants who have cut ties with Al-Qaeda, as long as they renounce their obsolete views regarding women and display respect for women's rights.

It was "essential that women's rights and women's opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled on in the reconciliation process," said Clinton, earlier on Thursday to three senior female Afghan fficials travelling with Mr Karzai, the report said. (ANI)