U.S. Doubles Its Troops in Afghan Army

The U.S. military has doubled the number of its soldiers embedded inside the Afghan army, a spokesman said Sunday, bolstering a force that's supposed to relieve American and NATO troops in warlord-plagued provinces and along the Pakistani border. A group of 288 U.S. National Guard soldiers arrived in Afghanistan (news - web sites) on Friday and Saturday to serve as tactical trainers with the Afghan National Army, joining about 300 already embedded with Afghan units, Maj. Eric Bloom told The Associated Press. "They have begun the one-week training program before they deploy to the field to meet their (Afghan) counterparts," Bloom said. Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top commander of American forces in Afghanistan, requested the extra troops to accelerate the training of a 70,000-strong government force designed to tackle renegade faction leaders and remnants of the ousted Taliban. The U.S. military says that three years after the fall of the Taliban the hardline militia's resistance is waning. The military says it is still conducting operations during the traditionally quieter winter months but has reported few contacts with insurgents. Much of the country is immobilized by freezing temperatures and heavy snow. The bad weather "has slowed us down some, but it hasn't stopped us carrying out security operations," said U.S. spokesman Maj. Steve Wollman. "Helicopters give us a great advantage to get over snow-covered roads." U.S. and Afghan officials insist that many Taliban have signaled their readiness to make peace. Obaidullah, however, claimed no Taliban representatives has had talks "with invaders." "We consider jihad is the only way to force them leave our country. We will fight with them. Dialogue is not a solution," he said. With both the United States and Britain considering a long-term "strategic partnership" with Afghanistan, it is unclear just when the new Afghan force will allow foreign troops to begin reducing their expensive deployment here since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. [more]