17,000 more US troops head for Afghanistan

Barack Obama is to send 17,000 more US troops for the flagging war in Afghanistan, in his first significant move to change the course of a conflict that he has been told America is not winning.

“This increase is necessary to stabilise a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires,” President Obama said in a statement.

The statement was a sideswipe at his predecessor George Bush, whom Mr Obama has accused of slighting urgent national security needs in Afghanistan in favour of war in Iraq.

The White House said the new commander in chief would send a Marine unit and one additional Army brigade to Afghanistan this spring and summer. About 8,000 Marines are expected to go first, followed by an Army brigade, totalling about 4,000 troops, and 5,000 support forces. The US has slightly more than 30,000 troops in the country now.

Mr Obama’s decision shifts the Army brigade and several thousand Marines from already approved deployments to Iraq later this year to new destinations in southern Afghanistan.

As a result, the number of combat brigades in Iraq will probably drop from 14 to 12 by the summer, unless other units are identified to fill those slots.

A decision on that troop cut in Iraq has not yet been made, but Mr Obama campaigned on a pledge to bring combat troops out of Iraq.

The new troops represent the first instalment on a larger influx of US forces widely expected this year. Mr Obama’s move would put several thousand troops in place in time for the increase in fighting that usually occurs with warmer weather and ahead of national elections in August.

The additional forces partly answer a standing request from the US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, who has sought as many as 30,000 additional US troops to counter the resurgence of the Taliban militants and protect Afghan civilians.

“There is no more solemn duty as president than the decision to deploy our armed forces into harm’s way,” Mr Obama said. “I do it today mindful that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action.”

The Pentagon outlined an addition of 12,000 combat forces, and said 5,000 support troops would be identified later.

Mr Obama’s plan to withdraw troops from Iraq allows him to increase the numbers in Afghanistan.

Mr Obama told Canadian TV that the US would seek a more comprehensive, diplomatic approach to Afghanistan, where America has been engaged in war since 2001.

“I am absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means,” the president said.

Mr Obama will make a quick day trip to Ottawa tomorrow.

He agreed to a troop recommendation from defence secretary Robert Gates, the lone holdover from the Bush administration. Pentagon officials had been expecting a similar announcement for weeks, but the new Obama team took about a month choosing how and when to add forces to a war that has been sliding backwards.

The strategy review for the Iraq war is expected to be completed in about two weeks, with announcements expected then on troop drawdowns, a White House official said.

US commanders have said they want to beef up the expeditionary units and trainers in Afghanistan’s southern region with enough new troops to stem the violence without becoming an occupying force that would alienate the population.