DANGEROUS PLANS: President Obama has vowed to intensify the “fight against terrorism” in Afghanistan.
THE US military was gearing up on Wednesday for a massive new “surge” in Afghanistan after President Barack Obama announced plans to increase troop numbers by over 50 per cent.
Mr Obama has vowed to intensify the “fight against terrorism” by pouring 17,000 more soldiers into the country over coming months.
Most of the new soldiers are expected to deploy in southern Afghanistan, where occupation forces are struggling to hold territory against increasingly bold resistance forces.
A marine expeditionary brigade will arrive in Afghanistan later this spring and an army stryker brigade will deploy in summer.
The expeditionary brigade includes about 8,000 troops and the army brigade is 4,000-strong.
An additional 5,000 “support troops” are also set to be deployed before the Afghan elections on August 20.
The extra 17,000 troops will bolster the 33,000 US soldiers and 55,100 NATO troops who are already in the impoverished country.
The Afghan army and occupation troops have faced a record number of roadside bombs and suicide explosions since early 2008.
US military commanders have repeatedly complained of having too few troops, especially in central and eastern Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office said that Mr Obama had called Mr Karzai on Tuesday to reassure him that Washington “will continue the fight against terrorism.”
Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was defeated by Mr Obama in last November’s presidential election, described the situation in Afghanistan as “dire.”
Mr McCain called on Mr Obama to spell out a clear strategy.
“There still exists no integrated civil-military plan for this war, more than seven years after we began military operations,” he said, adding: “A major change in course is long overdue.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have welcomed Mr Obama’s decision to pour more troops into Afghanistan.
A US general travelled to western Afghanistan on Wednesday to investigate claims that six women and two children were killed in a US air strike.
The Pentagon said in a statement that a strike in the Gozara district of Herat province on Monday had killed 15 militants.
But Afghan police official Ekremuddin Yawar said that six women and two children were among the dead, along with five men.
Mr Yawar said that they belonged to a nomadic tribe that lives in tents in remote areas.
Peace and Justice Post 