Early wins in a major anti-Taliban push in southern Afghanistan offered a "beacon of hope," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday during a surprise visit to troops.
During a lightning eight-hour visit to Helmand province, Brown cautioned that it was vital to "win the peace as
well as the war" and vowed that British troops would stay in Afghanistan until their job was done.
"That's why it's so crucial that in just 20 days since the start of the operation, the combined international and Afghan forces, military and civilian, have begun turning a stronghold of brutal Taliban insurgency into a beacon of hope for local people," he told reporters.