Obama Commits 17,000 More Us Troops to Afghanistan

Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 extra US troops be sent to Afghanistan, keeping a campaign pledge to bolster security in the country, which he said had not received the "strategic attention" it required.

The deployment, which will add nearly 50% to the 36,000 US troops already there, is a clear sign of the president's determination to rethink America's approach to the war.

The move will please military officials in Afghanistan, who have pleaded for more forces to battle an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. Militant attacks have escalated in the last three years and insurgents now control wide sections of countryside.

Obama's decision to deploy the troops was one of his first major acts in a war that began more than seven years ago and is now his responsibility.

A further decision on sending more troops will come after the administration completes a broader review of Afghanistan policy, White House officials said.

Obama said in a written statement that the increase was "necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires".

On the campaign trail, Obama argued that by focusing on Iraq, his predecessor, George Bush, was distracted from the more important war, in Afghanistan, where the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, plotted the September 11 attacks.

At least for now, Obama's decision gives American commanders in Afghanistan most but not all of the troops they had asked for. The decision carries political risk for the president, who will be sending more troops to Afghanistan before he has begun to fulfil a promised rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Many experts worry that Afghanistan presents a more formidable challenge for the United States than does Iraq, particularly with neighbouring Pakistan providing sanctuary for insurgents of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Under Obama's plan, a unit of 8,000 marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, will be deployed in the next few weeks, aiming to be in Afghanistan by late spring, administration officials said, while an army brigade from Fort Lewis, Washington, comprising 4,000 soldiers, will be sent in the summer. An additional 5,000 army support troops will also be deployed in the summer.

Anti-war groups criticized Obama's decision. "The president is committing these troops before he's determined what the mission is," said Tom Andrews, director of the Win Without War coalition. "We need to avoid the slippery slope of military escalation."

Obama said in his statement that "the fact that we are going to responsibly draw down our forces in Iraq allows us the flexibility to increase our presence in Afghanistan".

American generals in Afghanistan had been pressing for additional forces to be in place by late spring or early summer. Of the 30,000 additional troops that the commanders initially sought, some 6,000 arrived in January, sent by Bush.

The administration's review of Afghanistan policy is supposed to be completed before early April, when Obama heads to Europe for a Nato summit meeting at which he is expected to press American allies for more troops and help in Afghanistan.

In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation yesterday, Obama said he was "absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region solely through military means".

Once Obama had announced his decision, he spoke on the phone with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, for the first time since his inauguration a month ago.