Kabul, Wednesday, 20 August 2008: French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Kabul on Wednesday in a show of support for French troops after 10 were killed in the deadliest attack yet on international forces in Afghanistan.

Sarkozy arrived at Kabul airport along with his Defence Minister Herve Morin and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, sources said.

They were due to meet some of the 21 French troops wounded in the fighting Monday and Tuesday near Kabul, as well as Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Vowing to pursue France’s mission, Sarkozy said before he left late on Tuesday that his visit was to show the troops that “France is at their side”.

He announced he would fly to Afghanistan as soon as news broke on Tuesday of the fighting 50 kms East of the capital Kabul.

“In its struggle against terrorism, France has just been hard hit,” Sarkozy said.

It was the deadliest attack on international forces fighting extremists in Afghanistan since the US-led war that ousted the hardline Taliban regime in 2001.

It was also the deadliest on French soldiers since a 1983 assault in Beirut in which 58 paratroopers were killed.

But Sarkozy insisted France would not be deterred from its Afghan mission, for which it has 3,000 soldiers serving in a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of more than 40,000 troops from nearly 40 nations.

He was due to hold talks with Michel Stollsteiner, a French general who is head of ISAF troops in Kabul and its surrounds.

“My determination is intact. France is committed to pursuing the struggle against terrorism, for democracy and for freedom,” the president said earlier in a statement from his holiday residence in the French Riviera.

He went on: “This is a just cause, it is an honour for France and for its army to defend it.”

US forces provided air support in the battle, after which the Taliban said it had destroyed several military vehicles.

“Serious measures, notably in the air, were taken to support and extricate our men caught in an extremely violent ambush,” Sarkozy said.

Morin estimated casualties on the Taliban side at 30 dead and 30 wounded.