By Deb Riechmann
Associated Press
Monday, June 9, 2008

BAMIAN, Afghanistan, June 8 -- First lady Laura Bush, on a mission to highlight signs of progress in war-torn Afghanistan, ventured outside the capital Sunday to an area that symbolizes both the destruction and attempt at rebirth.

Fresh attacks were reported across the country. Britain said three of its soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber while on foot patrol in the Upper Sangin Valley of Helmand province, and the BBC said one of its Afghan journalists had been kidnapped and killed.

On her third visit, the first lady flew into Kabul before boarding a helicopter for a 50-minute flight to Bamian province, the farthest she has traveled from Afghanistan's largest city.

At a provincial reconstruction team compound operated by New Zealand, visible in the distance were the empty niches in a cliffside where two giant Buddha statues once stood.

The Buddhas, carved into the sandstone cliffs 2,000 years ago, were demolished in March 2001 by the Taliban, which considered them idolatrous and anti-Muslim. The Taliban, a repressive Islamist militia, ruled most of Afghanistan until the U.S.-led invasion that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

During her day-long visit, the first lady met with President Hamid Karzai, saw a police academy where female recruits are trained and visited U.S. troops. The United States now has about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, the most ever.

Bush also celebrated the construction of a paved road linking the Bamian airport with its bazaar and town center, and toured a learning center under construction that will double as an orphanage.

She plans to address a conference Thursday in Paris where organizers hope donor nations will pledge as much as $15 billion for Afghan reconstruction projects through 2014.

Afghanistan has experienced a spiraling heroin trade and a resurgence of violence, even as the United States and NATO have poured thousands of new troops into the country. More than 8,000 people were killed last year in insurgency-related attacks -- the most since the 2001 invasion.

On Sunday, insurgents attacked a police convoy in central Afghanistan, killing 11 officers and wounding one, an official said. Gunmen in the east killed four men, including a local government official. The BBC said the body of one its Afghan journalists, Abdul Samad Rohani, was found after he had gone missing in Helmand province.