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Top US Commander Seeks to Keep 9,800 Troops in Afghanistan

teleSUR | December 29, 2015

The top commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday he wants to keep as many military forces in the country to allegedly boost counter-terror operations.

In an interview with USA Today, Army Gen. John Campbell said he wants to keep the current 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to train the country’s security forces and conduct ‘counterterrorism’ operations.

“My intent would be to keep as much as I could for as long as I could,” Campbell told the paper “At some point it becomes physics. I’m going to have to get them out.”

Campbell’s declaration goes against a scheduled reduction to 5,500 U.S. troops by Jan. 1, 2017.

He is set to brief senior leaders in Washington about the security situation and offer proposals for a stronger military presence in Afghanistan.

“Some of them will not go over well with people,” Campbell said. “Some of them will get approved.”

The military commander has been pushing for a longer and more extensive military presence in Afghanistan in recent months to counter what he says is a growing strength of the Taliban, the Islamic State group and Al Qaeda in the country.

In recent months, the Taliban have regained control of much of Afghanistan, with vast swathes of rural areas slipping beyond the control of the central government.

The security crisis has led to the worst annual rate of civilian causalities in 2014 since at least 2009, according to a United Nations report released earlier this year.

Painting a bleak picture in the divided country, the report said civilian deaths increased by 22 percent between 2013 and 2014. The report attributed the steady rise in civilian killings to “increased ground engagements” and the mushrooming use of heavy explosives such as mortars in civilian populated areas.

Among the victims, children accounted for 714 killed and 1,760 wounded in 2014 – a 40 percent increase over the previous year.

Afghanistan’s security forces are also facing mounting casualties, with at least 5,000 troops and police killed last year.

December 30, 2015 - Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism, Timeless or most popular | ,

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