WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama approved adding about 17,000 U.S. troops — including a Fort Lewis brigade — for the flagging war in Afghanistan, his first significant move to change the course of a conflict that his closest military advisers have warned the United States is not winning.
“This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires,” Obama said in a statement.
Also Tuesday, the United Nations said the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan’s worsening conflict jumped 40 percent to a new high last year, and more than half of the deaths were inflicted by Taliban insurgents and other militants.
The report said insurgents increasingly use roadside bombs, car bombs and suicide bombers in attacks that are “undertaken regardless of the impact on civilians.” The U.N. said a record 2,118 civilians died from violence last year, up from 1,523 the previous year.
The White House said Obama would send a Marine unit and one additional Army brigade to Afghanistan this spring and summer. About 8,000 Marines are expected to go first, followed by an Army brigade, totalling about 4,000 troops, and 5,000 support forces. The United States has slightly more than 30,000 troops in the country now.
Obama’s decision shifts the Army brigade and several thousand Marines from already approved deployments to Iraq later this year to new destinations in southern Afghanistan. As a result, the number of combat brigades in Iraq will likely drop from 14 to 12 by the summer, unless other units are identified to fill those slots.
A decision on that troop cut in Iraq has not yet been made, but Obama campaigned on a pledge to bring combat troops out of Iraq.
The new troops going to Afghanistan represent the first installment on a larger influx of U.S. forces widely expected this year. Obama’s move would put several thousand troops in place in time for the increase in fighting that usually occurs with warmer weather and ahead of national elections in August.
The additional forces partly answer a standing request from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, who has sought as many as 30,000 additional U.S. troops to counter the resurgence of the Taliban militants and protect Afghan civilians.
The new units are the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., and the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, an Army Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis.
The Pentagon outlined an addition of 12,000 combat forces, and said 5,000 support troops would be identified later. A Marine Expeditionary Brigade can vary in size and makeup.
The strategy review for the Iraq war is expected to be completed in about two weeks or so, with announcements expected then on troop drawdowns, the White House official said.
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