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• US defence secretary Robert Gates confirms move
• Beleaguered Nato forces bolstered by summer 2009 * Richard Norton-Taylor, Matthew Weaver and agencies
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday December 11 2008 10.06 GMT Hard-pressed British soldiers in southern Afghanistan will be reinforced
by thousands of American troops early next year, under plans being drawn
up by Nato and US commanders. Alarmed by a resurgence of the Taliban,
Washington is to send up to 10,000 troops to Helmand province, a force
large enough to outnumber the 8,000-strong struggling British contingent.
US defence secretary Robert Gates, who will keep his job in Barack
Obama's administration, confirmed the move on-board a flight to a Nato
base in southern Afghanistan. Asked about a request for more troops from US General David McKieran,
Nato's top commander in Afghanistan, Gates said: "We're going to try and
get two additional brigade combat teams, in response to his request,
into Afghanistan by summertime." A further 10,000 American troops will be deployed elsewhere in southern
and south-western Afghanistan, according to senior Pentagon officials.
Commanders refer to the plan as a long-term troop "uplift", as opposed
to a short-term "surge", such as that in Iraq last year. Gates, due to meet McKieran today, said a key "course correction" in the
Afghanistan war under Obama will be to build the Afghan army and
cooperate better with Kabul on security operations. "I think there's a concern on the part of some of the Afghans that we
sort of tell them what we're going to do, instead of taking proposals to
them and getting their input and then working out with them what we're
going to do, so it's a real partnership," Gates told reporters. "The Soviets couldn't win in Afghanistan with 120,000 troops," he added:
"We have to do a better job of working with the Afghans and listening to
what they have to say." British forces in southern Afghanistan are locked in a stalemate with
Taliban insurgents, McKiernan said in Kabul yesterday. The insurgents
were not winning, but the country was at a "tipping point", he said. He added: "2009 is going to be a critical year for this campaign. It's
elections here and a new administration in the US. It is a chance for
the international community to stay committed and a window of
opportunity to increase contributions." The US is transferring thousands of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
British military chiefs say pressure on UK armed forces means they will
not be able to send the 4,000 British troops due to leave Basra by June
next year to southern Afghanistan. However, they will come under strong
pressure from the new administration in Washington to reinforce
Britain's military presence in Helmand. Military planners in London are drawing up contingency plans to deploy
perhaps a battle group of 1,500 soldiers there - but only for a limited
period around the Afghan presidential election in September next year.
However, scores of SAS special forces are expected to be transferred
early next year from Iraq, where they have been engaged in operations
against insurgency leaders. They would reinforce US special boat service
soldiers who have targeted Taliban leaders in Afghanistan. US commanders have said they would like to almost double the number of
American troops in Afghanistan, an increase from about 32,000 to 60,000.
Most of the extra 20,000 already committed will be deployed in Helmand
and neighbouring Kandahar province. The first US reinforcements of 3,500 marines will be deployed through
southern Afghanistan, followed early next year by deployments south of
Kabul and on the northern fringes of Helmand. Later in the year more US
troops will be deployed in the thinly populated areas of southern
Helmand, close to the Pakistan border. Others will spread out east into
Kandahar province, where Canadian troops have been based, the Guardian
has learned. British troops, meanwhile, will continue to be responsible for the more
heavily populated areas of middle Helmand, sometimes referred to as the
"central Helmand belt". US troops would provide a kind of "wrap" around
British troops, a Nato military source said yesterday.
If US commanders had their way, another 10,000 or so American troops
would be deployed to eastern Afghanistan to concentrate on fighting
Taliban and al-Qaida supporters crossing the border from the tribal
areas of north-west Pakistan where they have been congregating.
British commanders say Taliban raids have been disrupted by the killing
- often by special forces - of their leaders. That has led them to
resort more to improvised roadside bombs, which damage the Taliban cause
by sometimes killing civilians. Defence officials recognise that UK troops are too thin on the ground to
mount military operations to control Helmand's rural hinterland. They
compare the task to squashing balloons or squeezing jelly - meaning that
as Taliban groups are forced out of one area, they move into another
one. The idea is that US reinforcements will squeeze them out altogether.
More effective and longer lasting military activity is needed in the
next year, Nato commanders say. Only then will civil agencies and
economic and political progress, combined with a bigger, trained Afghan
national army, come into their own, putting the Afghan government in a
strong enough position to pursue effective negotiations with the Taliban.
Timeline December 2008 An extra 3,500 US marines deployed in southern Afghanistan
January 2009 3,500 US troops deployed south of Kabul. 1,500 deployed
elsewhere in southern Afghanistan
During 2009 Up to 10,000 US troops deployed in Helmand province, the
bulk in the south and south-west close to the Pakistan border
Autumn 2009 An extra 1,500 British troops deployed to Helmand province
during the Afghan presidential election campaign
Late 2009/early 2010 An extra 10,000 US troops deployed to eastern
Afghanistan to control border with Pakistan.
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