Washington vows troop rise

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Afghanistan yesterday welcomed a U.S. pledge to send up to 30,000 extra troops by mid-2009, but the Taliban warned Washington its forces would be "cruelly defeated" as the Soviets were in the 1980s.

The statements came one day after the top U.S. military officer said that tens of thousands of new troops could be sent to Afghanistan by next summer to help Kabul combat a Taliban-led insurgency that has gained pace in recent years, according to an account by Agence France-Presse news agency.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said between 20,000 and 30,000 additional U.S. troops could be sent to Afghanistan to bolster the 31,000 already there.

This year has been the deadliest for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Suicide attacks and roadside bombs have become more dangerous, and Taliban fighters have infiltrated wide swaths of countryside and now roam in provinces on Kabul's doorstep.

U.S. commanders have long requested an additional 20,000 troops to aid Canadian and British forces in two provinces just outside Kabul and in the south. But the high end of Mullen's range is the largest number any top U.S. military official has said could be sent to Afghanistan. Mullen said that increase would include combat forces but also aviation, medical and civilian affairs support troops.

"So some 20,000 to 30,000 is the window of overall increase from where we are right now," The Associated Press quoted Mullen as saying at a news conference at a U.S. base in Kabul. "We certainly have enough forces to be successful in combat, but we haven't had enough forces to hold the territory that we clear."

Overall, there are more than 60,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Mullen said any increased U.S. deployment would be directly tied to force levels in Iraq, where U.S. commanders are drawing down troops.

"The Taliban and extremists are more sophisticated and effective," Mullen said. "They haven't won any battles but they certainly have increased the level of violence, and we're very focused on that. That's why the additional forces are so important, to be able to provide security for the Afghan people so these other areas can be developed."

’Moderate’ goals
Mullen said after the additional U.S. troops are added over the next eight months, only improvements in Afghanistan's governance and economic situation will affect the strength of the insurgency. But the chairman conceded the U.S. may have misjudged the central government's ability "to have the kind of impact that we wanted."

Afghanistan, Mullen said, has never been run by a strong central government, and the U.S. may look to communities and tribes in the country's provinces to take on a greater role in future strategy. He called U.S. goals in Afghanistan "moderate," and said the long-term U.S. vision is for a country that can govern itself while respecting international law, while providing both material and economic security for its people.

Meanwhile, Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said Kabul hoped the additional U.S. forces would be sent to the volatile south and areas along the eastern border with Pakistan, where Taliban fighters are the most active. "We welcome the increase in U.S. troops in Afghanistan. We have, however, two main demands," Baheen told Agence France-Presse.

"The first is that these forces should be deployed in places where they are needed -- particularly in (southern) Helmand (province) and along our eastern borders, from where terrorists infiltrate into our country," he said. "Secondly, this increase should help intensify the training and equipping of Afghan national security forces so they are able to better contribute to the fight against terror and defend the country."

However, a spokesman for the Taliban dismissed the U.S. troop pledge, saying it would be as useless as a similar "surge" by the Soviets in the 1980s, and would only provide the insurgents with more targets. "They now want to send more troops to Afghanistan.... The Russians also sent that many troops but were badly defeated," said the spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, referring to Moscow's occupation of Afghanistan. "When the U.S. increases its troop levels to that of the Russians, they will also be cruelly defeated," warned Ahmadi, who claims to speak on behalf of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. "More troops -- that means there will be more targets for the Taliban," he said.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw forces from Iraq and redeploy them to Afghanistan as part of his plan to tackle instability in south and central Asia.