The US, in an unannounced move, is deploying 13,000 more troops in Afghanistan beyond the additional 21,000 figure made public by President Barack Obama.
The additional troops are primarily support forces comprising Engineers, Medical personnel, Intelligence experts and Military Police, Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
“Their deployment has received little mention by officials at Pentagon and the White House, who had spoken more about the combat troops who have been sent to Afghanistan”, the paper said.
These troops are being sent as Obama is till reviewing request for 40,000 more battle troops by his top commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal, who said without this fresh deployment, the war against Taliban and al-Qaeda would be hard to turn around.
With these fresh inductions, the deployment of additional troops in Afghanistan would increase to 34,000, but it will not change the decision to have the total number of troops in that country at 68,000, more than double the number there when Bush left office, the Post said.
The paper said the army and the marine corp were finding it hard to meet these new requirements as also to find still more forces if the President okays McChrystal’s request.
The US army has 17 brigades deployed worldwide, including 11 in Iraq and five in Afghanistan. While, marine corp has one expeditionary brigade in Afghanistan, the paper said quoting Pentagon data.
