At least Panetta is safe...

A tense visit to Afghanistan by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta (photo) got off to an unscripted start when a stolen truck sped onto a runway ramp at a British military airfield as his plane was landing. Panetta was unhurt, but Pentagon officials said the Afghan driver emerged from the vehicle in flames.

No explosives were found on the Afghan national or in the truck, the officials said, and the Pentagon was, so far, not considering the episode an attack on Panetta. But it reinforced the lack of security in Afghanistan at the start of his visit, the first by a senior member of the Obama administration since an American soldier reportedly killed sixteen Afghan civilians, mostly children and women, in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. The two-day trip, unannounced as usual for security reasons, had been planned months ago, but has taken on a new urgency since the Sunday massacre.

Panetta, like President Obama, has denounced the killings, and vowed to bring the killer to justice, a message he is to deliver in person to President Hamid Karzai and top Afghan defense and interior officials. The killings have further clouded strained Afghan-American relations.

Panetta was landing at Camp Bastion, a British air field that adjoins Camp Leatherneck, a vast Marine base in Helmand Province, which abuts Kandahar.

Panetta and his aides were aware of the incident shortly after it happened, about 1100 local time, but he continued as planned with remarks to Marines and international troops at Camp Leatherneck and then headed as scheduled for a trip to a remote combat outpost, Shukvani, in western Helmand. The episode was not disclosed until nearly ten hours after it occurred, well after Panetta had arrived in Kabul from the south.

George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, said the stolen truck never exploded, counter to some early reports. Little said Panetta was never in danger, but he could not explain the Afghan’s motive or whether he was a suicide attacker aiming for Panetta’s plane. Nor could he explain why the Afghan was on fire. “For reasons that are totally unknown to us at this time, our personnel discovered that he was ablaze,” Little said. “He ran, he jumped on to a truck, base personnel put the fire out, and he was immediately treated for burn injuries.” Little said an investigation was ongoing and he did not yet have all the facts. “We cannot confirm in any way, shape or form at this time that this stolen vehicle was in any way tied to the secretary’s arrival or his visit,” Little said.

In a sign of the nervousness surrounding the visit, Marines and other troops among the two hundred people gathered in a tent at Camp Leatherneck to hear Panetta speak were abruptly asked by their commander to get up, place their weapons— M-16 and M-4 automatic rifles and pistols— outside the tent and then return unarmed. The commander, Sergeant Major Brandon Hall, told reporters he was acting on orders from superiors. “All I know is, I was told to get the weapons out,” he said. Asked why, he replied, “Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say. Somebody got itchy; we just adjust.” Normally, American forces in Afghanistan keep their weapons with them when the defense secretary visits and speaks to them. The Afghans in the tent were not armed to begin with, as is typical.

Later, American officials said that the top commander in Helmand, Major General Mark Gurganus, had decided that no one would be armed while Panetta spoke to them, but the word did not reach those in charge in the tent until shortly before Panetta was due to arrive.

General Gurganus told reporters later that he wanted a consistent policy for everyone in the tent. “You’ve got one of the most important people in the world in the room,” he said. He insisted that his decision had nothing to do with the shooting on Sunday. “This is not a big deal,” he said.

In his remarks to the group, Panetta said: “We will be challenged by our enemies, we will be challenged by ourselves, we will be challenged by the hell of war itself.” Panetta also flew to a remote military base in western Helmand, Combat Outpost Shukvani, where American Marines fight alongside troops from Georgia, the former Soviet republic. The battalion commander of the 750 Georgian troops, Lieutenant Colonel Alex Tugushi, lost both legs in a homemade bomb explosion in December; he is recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital near Washington, where President Obama has visited him.

Panetta read a letter to the Georgians from Colonel Tugushi that said, in part: “Unfortunately, I could not complete my service with you. But I am proud of all of you— those who have fallen and those who continue to serve. You are all heroes who will go down in Georgian history.”

Panetta told the troops in Helmand that the rampage on Sunday would not change the administration’s plans to withdraw 23,000 American troops from the country by the end of the summer and the remaining 68,000 by the end of 2014, although some could remain longer if the Afghans and Americas negotiate a long-term agreement.

Early in the day, a roadside bomb struck a minivan in Helmand at about 0100 local time, destroying the vehicle and killing eight civilians. Until then, American commanders had said that Helmand was relatively quiet after the massacre, unlike Panjwai, the district in Kandahar where the rampage occurred. Militants there attacked a memorial service for the sixteeen victims when an Afghan government delegation was present, firing machine guns and assault rifles from their motorcycles and killing at least one Afghan soldier; a motorcycle bomb went off near where the same delegation was staying in Kandahar city, killing a security officer.

Panetta told reporters on his plane that the killings in Panjwai were a horrific part of the decade-old conflict in Afghanistan. “War is hell,” he said. “These kinds of events and incidents are going to take place, they’ve taken place in any war, they’re terrible events, and this is not the first of those events, and it probably will not be the last.” He added: “But we cannot allow these events to undermine our strategy.”