Pregnant Spanish minister visits Afghanistan

HERAT - Spain’s newly appointed Defence Minister Carme Chacon, who is seven months pregnant, made a brief visit to insurgency-hit Afghanistan Saturday to meet Spanish troops, an official said.
Chacon, appointed six days ago, was scheduled to spend only a few hours with the soldiers based in the western city of Herat, a Spanish information officer told AFP.
She was briefed by Spanish commanders about their work as part of a NATO-led force helping Afghanistan fight the Taliban, the officer said. Spain is among 40 nations serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The minister was also given a rundown of Spain’s work as the head of the Badghis province reconstruction team -- one of several military-civilian units set up around the war-torn country.
She toured a Spanish-run hospital at the Herat base, where she met Spanish patients, and was due to leave in the afternoon, said the officer, who asked to not be identified.
About 750 Spanish soldiers work alongside Italian troops in Herat, where the Italians are in command, and there are another 200 in Qala-e-Now, capital of neighbouring Badghis province, where Spain is the lead nation.
Spanish national radio RNE reported that 37-year-old Chacon, Spain’s first woman defence minister, was accompanied by her gynaecologist and a medical team.
Her unannounced visit to Afghanistan came only six days after she was appointed in the new government line-up of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.