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Pence had been expected to visit Egypt and Israel this week, a trip that was delayed amid a crunch vote on tax cuts and deadly protests at Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. 

Not welcome in Middle East 

Following Trump's controversial move, senior Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub had said that Pence was "not welcome in Palestine" during his upcoming regional visit.

His comments were followed by Egypt's Coptic Church head Pope Tawadros II who cancelled his meeting with Pence in Cairo also in protest to Washington's decision.

"The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church declines to receive American Vice President Mike Pence," a statement said, adding that Trump's decision "did not take into account the feelings of millions of Arab people."

Egypt's top Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of al-Azhar, had also declined to meet Pence.

Tayeb had warned that US plans to relocate its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem will "open the floodgates of hell to the West".

Flying secretly through the day and night on a standard unmarked US Air Force C-17, Pence corkscrewed into Bagram Airfield on the unannounced visit on Thursday, to thank some of the roughly 15,000 US personnel still hoping to turn the tide in the conflict, now in its 17th year.

"The American people deserve to know that with the courage of everyone gathered here, we're making real progress in this fight for freedom in Afghanistan," Pence told the troops.

"We've dramatically increased American airstrikes. And together with our Afghan partners, we've put the Taliban on the defensive," he said, also pointing at efforts to target the drug trafficking networks that help fund the Taliban.

His visit also included a helicopter dash from Bagram into the heart of the capital Kabul to meet President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, both of whom the United States is counting on to help rebuild this war-shattered country.

"We've been on a long road together" he said. "We've both sacrificed much."

But, he added: "We are here to see this through."

The vice president also aimed a jab at neighbouring Pakistan reiterating word for word Trump's warning that it must stop offering cross-border safe havens to Taliban factions and armed extremist groups fighting US troops and their Afghan allies.

"President Trump has put Pakistan on notice," Pence said.

"Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with the United States, and Pakistan has much to lose by continuing to harbour criminals and terrorists."

His visit comes four months after Trump unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan, which he told the troops was "already bearing fruit."

Agencies contributed to this report