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Extra US troops due near Afghan border with Pakistan
Kabul (AFP) Nov 23, 2008 A brigade of 3,500-4,000 extra US troops due in Afghanistan in January will be deployed in the east amid efforts to stop infiltration of militants from Pakistan, the US military said Sunday. The brigade has been approved as part of requested US troop reinforcements for Afghanistan's fight against extremists that could amount to about 20,000 personnel, US military spokesman Colonel Greg Julian told reporters in Kabul. "The first brigade that is coming will go into the (NATO-led) RC-East (Regional Command East) and they are going to move into areas that are currently not covered," Julian said. The area includes about a dozen provinces, many of which are on the border with Pakistan where Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other militants are said to have training camps and safe havens. Guards along the porous border are being trained and 165 border posts are being built as part of a drive to stop militants entering Afghanistan, Julian said. "We recognise that there are certain lines or avenues that the insurgents come through (from Pakistan) and we are focusing our efforts on those," he said. International and Afghan troops along with counterparts in Pakistan this month launched "Operation Lionheart" along the border. "This operation will help to deny the enemies of Afghanistan safe havens in Pakistan," Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, spokesman for a NATO-led force working alongside the US-led coalition and Afghan army, told the briefing. The Afghan government has long demanded more focus in the US-led "war on terror" on extremist bases in Pakistan, and there have been more than 20 apparent US air strikes in the area over the past few months. There are already nearly 70,000 international soldiers in the country, but Afghan officials have called for extra troops on the border to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency. Julian said the top US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, has asked for three combat brigades along with support elements such as intelligence and air power, which could altogether amount to 20,000 personnel. "However they are dependent on the security situation in Iraq improving enough so those forces can be made available, and upon the agreement of the Afghan government," he said. Taliban-led violence in Afghanistan has been on the increase every year since the 2001 US-led invasion forced the militants out of power. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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