The 20,000 additional troops sought by US commanders for the NATO mission in Afghanistan would come from the US, with any additional increase supplied by allies, the US general who oversees the Afghan war said on Tuesday.
General David Petraeus, who is head of US Central Command, was asked at an American institute in Rome, where he gave a speech, about beefing up troops in Afghanistan.
There are more than 60,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, just over half of whom are from the US.
US troop levels are already at their highest level since the beginning of the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban government after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But US commanders are seeking 20,000 more troops to stem the violence that has engulfed parts of the country.
US president-elect Barack Obama has also called for increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan.
The increase of “somewhere around 20,000 or so” would come “on the US side,” Petraeus told his audience, which included Italian military officers and political and strategic analysts.
As for any additional contribution from other NATO countries, “if you can ask the question in Brussels, we would be very grateful to you,” the general said.
NATO, which has its headquarters in Brussels, has been trying to invigorate what is seen as flagging European support for military operations in Afghanistan.
Petraeus did not say how many additional troops he would like US allies to contribute.
He met on Tuesday night with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and yesterday had talks scheduled with Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini.
Italy has 2,500 troops in NATO’s mission in Afghanistan. Frattini said last week the US should look elsewhere in Europe if it wants additional troops for Afghanistan.
No immediate news emerged regarding the Petraeus-Berlusconi meeting, but Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa appeared to reinforce Frattini’s position in separate talks with the US general.
“We maintain that more forces are needed in Afghanistan, but we also maintain that Italy is among those countries already most involved,” La Russa told reporters, the Italian news agency Apcom reported.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
REVELRY ON HOLD: Students marched in Belgrade amid New Year’s events, saying that ‘there is nothing to celebrate’ after the train station tragedy killed 15 Thousands of students marched in Belgrade and two other Serbian cities during a New Year’s Eve protest that went into yesterday, demanding accountability over the fatal collapse of a train station roof in November. The incident in the city of Novi Sad occurred on Nov. 1 at a newly renovated train facility, killing 14 people — aged six to 74 — at the scene, while a 15th person died in hospital weeks later. Public outrage over the tragedy has sparked nationwide protests, with many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight of construction projects. In Belgrade, university students marched through the capital
RSS