NATO, U.S. Commander seeks additional troops in Afghanistan

Kandahar - Commander of the United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, is seeking 2,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. Petraeus says the extra troops will serve mainly to train Afghan security forces.

NATO officials announced on Monday that Commander of the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan requested an additional 2,000 troops last week in order to train Afghan security forces, according to Reuters Canada. “It has been determined that around 2,000 forces will be required,” said a NATO official speaking on the condition of anonymity. “There is an ongoing discussion on this issue." Another anonymous official said: “There is now a discussion underway for additional resources, principally trainers, that could be sent to Afghanistan to bolster the mission.” The Commander’s request comes as NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visits Washington this week. However, several reports say that the request has been sent to NATO’s 28-member panel and that it is up to the individual governments to decide whether or not to send additional troops. U.S. President Barack Obama has already added 30,000 more troops to the nation. This latest request comes as several hundred Afghans shouted “death” to the U.S. President and are protesting the plans by a Florida church to burn the Qu’ran on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to the Daily Times. There are approximately 150,000 troops already in Afghanistan. In total, there have been 1,985 coalition deaths in Afghanistan; U.S., Great Britain and Canada are the top three with a total of 1,675 troop deaths. Tens of thousands of civilians have died in Afghanistan due to the military conflict.