US to add 5000 troops to Brithish force in Helmand

Times:

America is planning to send at least 5,000 additional troops to Afghanistan's Helmand province to help out beleaguered British troops, according to defence sources in Washington and Kabul.

Ministers are expected to examine early next year whether British reinforcements will also be sent to boost the present force of 8,100 troops in the British-controlled province.

The planned near-doubling of coalition forces in Helmand could, however, ease pressure to increase British force levels. London has made clear it does not plan to transfer the 3,700 troops coming out of Iraq next summer straight into Helmand.

General David McKiernan, the American commander of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and the US Operation Enduring Freedom, admitted yesterday that the battles with the Taleban in Helmand and elsewhere in southern Afghanistan had run into a tactical stalemate, despite attritional attacks against insurgency leaders.

The Americans are planning to send three combat brigades of at least 20,000 extra troops to Afghanistan from January. Some estimates coming out of Washington suggest that the total could be as high as 30,000. Although it is being called a surge, like the US reinforcement of Iraq, the British refer to it as an “uplift” because the additional troops will remain for the long term.

Under current planning, 5,000 will go to Helmand, another 5,000 will be based in neighbouring Kandahar, and also in Zabul and Oruzgan provinces in the south, and the remainder will be sent to eastern Afghanistan. If Barack Obama approves the option to send another 30,000 troops when he becomes President next month, it will nearly double the American presence in Afghanistan from 32,000 to 62,000.

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Helmand is certainly an area that needs additional forces. I suspect that the additional troops will probably be Marines. There is already a brigade of Marines in the area. You can find more on the additional troops in the Independent.

The Guardian says 10,000 troops will be added to Helmand.