Pentagon Plans to Send More Than 12,000 Additional Troops to Afghanistan
Posted by: admin in Afghanistan, USA, Wars and Rumors of WarsThe Poppy Patrol…
Source: US News and World Report
The Pentagon will be sending 12,000 to 15,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, possibly as soon as the end of this year, with planning underway for a further force buildup in 2009.
A request by Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, for three U.S. brigades with support staff has been approved. “Now that means we just need to figure out a way to get them there,” adds a senior defense official.
U.S. Marines stand alert as they prepare to leave Camp Dwyer in Garmser in the southern province of Helmand, Afghanistan.
The troops are slated to arrive earlier than has been previously discussed, on the heels of the deadliest months for American forces in Afghanistan since the war began.
The first wave of soldiers will be a U.S. Army brigade from the 10th Mountain Division, according to a senior military official. This brigade is scheduled to ship out between November and January, while two other brigades are likely to arrive “sometime in the spring or summer of next year,” the official adds.
And there may be even more to come. “I’ve also asked for some additional forces on top of that for the current fight,” says McKiernan, who wants to bolster the 101st Airborne Division in Regional Command East, which has been rocked by recent insurgent attacks. In July, nine U.S. troops were killed by insurgents who overran a combat outpost on the Kunar border of eastern Afghanistan. This week, militants tried but failed to overrun a base in Khost, just a few miles from the border, launching waves of attacks just before midnight on Monday.
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