**The Taliban have vowed to step up their fight in Afghanistan, after pledges by the US and its allies to send large reinforcements to the country.**A Taliban spokesman said such moves would “provoke stronger resistance”.
US President Barack Obama, announcing a long-awaited strategy on Tuesday, said another 30,000 American troops would be deployed quickly in Afghanistan.
Nato’s secretary general said non-US members would contribute at least 5,000 extra troops next year.
“Obama will witness lots of coffins heading to America from Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahamdi told AFP news agency.
MARDELL’S AMERICA
“There was plenty designed to reassure those who were worried about what is, after all, a massive escalation”
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“Their hope to control Afghanistan by military means will not become reality.”
Mr Obama reached his deployment decision after more than three months of deliberations and 10 top-level meetings with advisers.
Stressing that the US was in Afghanistan because of the 9/11 attacks on America by al-Qaeda militants, the president said their Taliban allies had “begun to take control over swathes of Afghanistan” while committing “devastating acts of terrorism” against Pakistan.
US forces, he said, lacked “the full support they need to effectively train and partner with Afghan security forces and better secure the population”.
“I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan,” he told the cadets.
“After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.”
Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, who had asked for 40,000 extra troops, welcomed the speech, saying he had been given “a clear military mission” and the necessary resources.