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Monday 10 August 2009

Taliban is expanding aggressively in Afghanistan



General Stanley McChrystal said aggressive Taliban tactics meant he would have to move troops from remote regions to the country's cities, and warned international casualties would remain high.
His comments came as a prominent US military analyst said the the US must send an additional 45,000 troops to Afghanistan and dramatically expand the country's army. Anthony Cordesman recently presented his views after working on a 60-day review of the war for General McChrystal.

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He added that he would also do everything necessary to secure Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban, and would send more US troops there.
He told the Wall street Journal: "It's a very aggressive enemy right now," "We've got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It's hard work."
The Taliban are spreading from their traditional heartlands in southern Afghanistan into formerly stable areas of the north and west he said.
Barack Obama has sent 21,000 extra troops to the country this year, which will take the total number of US forces to 68,000 by the end of 2009.
General McChrystal's 60-day review of the situation in Afghanistan is widely expected to call for still more troops.
He said he would direct a "very significant" expansion of the Afghan army and national police, which could double in size under plans being discussed by senior US military officers, the paper said.
"The insurgents may have lost virtually every tactical clash (against Nato troops), but they have expanded their areas of influence from a presence in some 30 of Afghanistan's 364 districts in 2003 to one in some 160 districts by the end of 2008, while insurgent attacks increased by 60 per cent during October 2008 to April 2009 alone," Mr Cordesman wrote. "Nato must change its strategy and tactics after years in which member countries, particularly the United States, failed to react to the seriousness of the emerging insurgency."

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