Asia

Asia

U.S. to send 1,400 extra troops to Afghanistan

06 January 2011 18:39 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United States plans to temporarily send 1,400 additional Marines to Afghanistan, a defense official said on Thursday, as military commanders try to secure fragile security gains months before a planned U.S. draw-down, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan with record casualties on all sides of the conflict and with the insurgency spreading from traditional strongholds in the south and east into once-peaceful areas in the north and west.
A review by President Barack Obama last month found U.S. and NATO forces were making headway against the Taliban and al Qaeda, but serious challenges remained. It said the Taliban’s momentum had been arrested in much of Afghanistan and reversed in some areas.
The review also said the United States was on track to begin a gradual withdrawal of its troops -- now numbering about 97,000 in a total foreign force of some 150,000 -- in July.
It was not immediately clear whether the deployment of the Marines, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would push U.S. forces in Afghanistan beyond Obama’s December 2009 order to deploy an additional 30,000 troops.
At the time, Obama also authorized the potential deployment of up to 3,000 extra forces, on top of the 30,000, to meet any unforeseen needs.
A military official, speaking on background, suggested the deployment of the Marines would not extend U.S. forces beyond those limits. Troop levels stood at about 68,000 when Obama ordered the surge in December 2009, the official noted, meaning that forces could effectively rise to 101,000.
A boost in combat troop numbers, even if temporary, could face opposition from members of Obama’s Democratic Party, the majority of whom are eager to see troops come home.
’DEPLOYMENT TEMPORARY’
"The deployment is only temporary," the defense official said, adding that the Marines heading to Afghanistan were currently stationed in the Gulf.
The Wall Street Journal said the additional Marine battalion would mostly be deployed in the south, around Kandahar, where the United States has concentrated troops over the past several months.
NATO and U.S. officials in Kabul were not immediately available for comment on the report.
Under pressure to show sustainable results in the first half of 2011, the temporary boost in troop numbers could help counter any "spring offensive" by Taliban militants returning from Pakistan after the cold winter months, the Journal said.
While fighting between insurgents and foreign troops has tended to intensify during warmer months, military commanders on the ground now speak less in terms of fighting "seasons" as both sides have stepped up their attacks throughout the year.
Last year was the deadliest of the war with a record 711 foreign troops killed, according to monitoring website www.iCasualties.com. Forty-one troops were killed in December, more than in March or April when temperatures are higher.
Afghan security forces have been hit harder than foreign troops. A total of 1,292 Afghan police, 821 Afghan soldiers and 5,225 insurgents were killed in 2010, according to the Afghan government.
But Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of the war. The United Nations has said 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 wounded between January and October last year -- up 20 percent from 2009.