Three U.S. brigades of about 3,500 troops each are needed to bolster the 32,000 U.S. forces already in Afghanistan, Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), has said.
"The Taliban is clearly resurgent," Mullen said in an interview published by USA Today Tuesday.
"We don't have enough troops there, and we need to get troops in there to really meet the combat needs," he said.
The shortage of American ground troops in Afghanistan had forced the Pentagon to significantly intensify its air campaign inthe first half of the year to the highest levels since 2003 to fight the resurgence of the Taliban.
However, the increased bombing had not slowed the Taliban and many experts agreed that airstrikes alone could not stop the Taliban's attacks and that more ground troops were needed.
U.S.-led coalition warplanes dropped 1,853 bombs and missiles in Afghanistan in June, a 40 percent increase from the same period in 2007.
In eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, where many airstrikes were launched, attacks by Taliban had risen by 40 percent this year.
A total of 28 U.S. soldiers were killed in June, which made it the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
Source:Xinhua
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