BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an unannounced visit to northern Afghanistan on Monday to meet with her country's troops and view rebuilding efforts.
Merkel and Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung visited a German base in the northern town in Kunduz and later continued to Mazar-e-Sharif, spokesman Thomas Steg said in Berlin. She also planned to visit civilian projects supported by German groups.
Merkel wanted "to get an impression of Germany's military and civilian commitment in northern Afghanistan," where its 3,800 troops are deployed, Steg told a regular government news conference.
The German military said two rockets were fired at the Kunduz base after Merkel had left, but both landed outside the perimeter and caused no damage. Steg said Merkel had departed 20 minutes earlier.
Steg declined to comment further on Merkel's itinerary, but said that her short visit to Afghanistan would not include talks with political leaders in Kabul. He said Merkel talked by telephone Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Merkel urged Karzai to review "very carefully" a much-criticized new law that critics say makes it legal for men to rape their wives, Steg said.
The chancellor stressed "that this law does not correspond with the government's ideas and with her personal ideas regarding the equality of men and women," Steg said.
Karzai said Saturday that he had ordered a review of the law, intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan's minority Shiite community.
Monday's trip was Merkel's second visit to Afghanistan. She previously went there in November 2007.
Merkel stressed after meeting President Barack Obama at a NATO summit Friday that "we want to carry our share of the responsibility: militarily, in the area of civil reconstruction and in police training."
She said the Obama administration's approach to Afghanistan, aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan while rooting out Taliban and al Qaeda hard-liners in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, "complements fully what Germany has in mind, a comprehensive approach."
The German troops serve under a mandate from parliament that allows the deployment of a maximum 4,500 soldiers.
In February, Merkel said Germany would send 600 extra troops in the run-up to elections there later this year.
However, German officials have made clear they do not plan to send troops to Afghanistan's volatile south.
