Pentagon chief visits Afghanistan after deadly Taliban attack

KABUL: US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit Monday, an American defense official confirmed, hours after his Afghan counterpart resigned over a deadly Taliban attack.

Mattis, making his first visit to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, was due to meet top officials including President Ashraf Ghani less than two weeks after the US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State hideouts in the country's east.