KABUL, Jan 17: As if to highlight that the war in Afghanistan was far from won, Powell, the first US secretary of state to visit here since Henry Kissinger in 1976, entered Afghanistan with near unprecedented levels of protection.

He and his entourage arrived under a total news blackout, flying into Bagram air base, north of Kabul, from Islamabad on a military transport plane with an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet sitting on each wing of the giant US Air Force C-17.

From Bagram, they took Chinook double-rotored helicopters, trailed by at least three smaller Blackhawk attack choppers, to the recently reopened Kabul airport, hugging the rugged terrain at very low altitudes and weaving in and out of hillocks and crests.

Heavily armed crew members stood on the lookout for possible threats.

Powell, who later announced the symbolic redesignation of the US diplomatic mission in Kabul from a liaison office to embassy, left Kabul for Bagram and Islamabad in the mid-afternoon under equally tight security.—AFP