KABUL: Afghan officials Wednesday welcomed US President Barack Obama’s decision to send 17,000 more soldiers to fight a Taliban-led insurgency here, but ordinary people feared more troops would mean more attacks.
In his first major military decision since taking office in January, Obama on Tuesday agreed to the deployment “to stabilise a deteriorating situation” in Afghanistan. “It’s a positive move,” Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Is’haq Payman told.
“But we have our own conditions. We want these troops to be deployed in areas where they could play a positive role in suppressing terrorists,” he said. “We want them to be deployed along the border, in eastern, southeastern and southern parts of the country.” Many of the attacks in Afghanistan are carried out by militants holed up in Pakistan’s lawless tribal zones, who infiltrate the porous 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile), largely mountainous border. Payman said the US reinforcements would also allow growing Afghan security forces to concentrate on vital training instead of fighting the insurgency, which started after the Taliban were ousted from power in late 2001.
source : jang.com.pk
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