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Afghanistan welcomes US troop ‘mini-surge’

* Japan house votes down bill to resume Afghan mission

KABUL: Afghanistan gave a welcome on Thursday to US plans to send extra 3,000 troops to fight the Taliban insurgency, but Washington’s move highlights divisions between Western allies over how much to commit to the country.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was considering sending an additional 3,000 Marines to thwart any Taliban spring offensive, bringing to around 30,000 the number of American servicemen and women in Afghanistan. Around half the US contingent serves in a 40,000-strong NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), while the rest conduct missions ranging from counter-terrorism to reconstruction to training Afghan troops.

Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry, said the increase in troop numbers would help anti-insurgency operations as the new national army continued to grow. “As we are in the fight together with the international community, the deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan is considered necessary in the current situation,” he said. “(But) The Afghan National Army is the answer for the long-term security in Afghanistan to thwart internal and external threat to the country and to maintain the force balance.”

Washington, stretched by last year’s troop surge in Iraq, has for months been trying in vain to persuade NATO allies to commit more combat troops to Afghanistan to take up the slack. “Our allies are not in a position to provide them (extra troops) so we are now looking at perhaps carrying a bit of that additional load,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said in Washington. He said most of the Marines would go to southern Afghanistan, where British, Canadian and Dutch troops have done much of the fighting.

Japan votes down bill: A legislative committee rejected the resumption Thursday of Japan’s anti-terror naval operation in the Indian Ocean, but the powerful lower house was expected to overrule that and enact the mission the following day. The committee, in the opposition-controlled upper house of parliament, voted down legislation to revive a limited version of Japan’s six-year-long mission to provide support to US-led forces in the region.

The pro-US ruling party, however, controls the more powerful lower house, which was scheduled to vote on the measure on Friday. The bill was expected to pass the chamber with two-thirds majority, ensuring its enactment. Thursday’s upper house committee vote and another ballot scheduled in the full chamber on Friday were largely formalities, since the lower house can override objections from the less powerful upper chamber. agencies

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