Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal at a memorial service on Wednesday for Afghan security officers.
Britain currently has around 9,000 British troops in Afghanistan
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown leaves his official residence, 10 Downing Street, for the new parliamentary year's first Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons in London, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009. Brown was expected to announce Wednesday that he's sending more British troops to Afghanistan amid rising dissent about the conflict.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged Wednesday to send more troops to Afghanistan but only if NATO and the Afghan government do more to help fight the Taliban.
Brown said his government would increase British troop levels to 9,500 — an increase of about 500 — on the condition that President Hamid Karzai reduce corruption and improve his government's performance. Brown also pledged to send troops only if he can provide them with the proper equipment, and if NATO allies increase their contributions to the war effort.
Military experts said Brown wants to show British support for the war as the U.S. debates an increase in its Afghan troop levels and he is unlikely to call off the deployment. Brown did not specify what contributions he is seeking from NATO nations, or exactly what the Afghans must do to get the extra forces, an indication that the conditions are largely designed to put political pressure on Karzai and NATO, they said.
In Washington, the White House expressed appreciation for the British decision but denied that Mr. Obama had made his decision. The president met for three hours with his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan, his fifth such meeting in recent weeks as he reviews strategy and his commander’s request for more troops.
Mr. Obama and his advisers focused much of their discussion on Wednesday on concerns with the Afghan government, the need to accelerate training of Afghan security forces and the challenges in deploying more civilian assistance, White House officials said. Mr. Obama plans another such meeting next week and does not appear close to a decision, prompting renewed criticism from Republicans that he is dithering at a critical moment.
The increase in British troops is small and may be of mostly symbolic importance, but it will likely be welcomed by President Barack Obama as his administration ponders difficult options in Afghanistan. These include a possible increase in U.S. forces, which now number about 67,000. Britain is the second-largest force in the 42-nation NATO coalition in Afghanistan.
Retired Col. Christopher Langton, a senior fellow at The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said it is extremely unlikely that Brown will ultimately decide to cancel the deployment even if the conditions he demanded are not met, in part because Brown has said he is responding to requests from senior military advisers.
Langton said, however, that Brown will have to make sure the troops are properly equipped and trained, as promised, or face tremendous public anger at home. The government has already been criticized for not providing enough body armor and heavy vehicles.
Brown appeared to dismiss an argument put forward by some in the U.S. administration that Western forces should avoid raising troops levels and limit their goals to eliminating al-Qaida through precise strikes by aerial drones and special forces.
"Our objective is clear and focused: to prevent al-Qaida launching attacks on our streets and threatening legitimate government in Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said. "But if we limit ourselves simply to targeting al-Qaida, without building the capacity of Afghanistan and Pakistan to deal with terrorism and violent extremism, the security gains will not endure."
Brown also said he will demand a better performance from Karzai's government.
It is not clear that the proposed extra deployment is large enough to have an impact on the battlefield, where Taliban loyalists have been able to plant roadside bombs with devastating impact on British troops.
Steven Bowns, a specialist at the Chatham House think tank in London, said troops will remain vulnerable on the ground until more helicopters are procured.
"They are indeed needed but it seems like a political gesture rather than a serious deployment," he said.
Brown's recently retired army chief accused him of turning down the military's request for an extra 2,000 troops, an allegation the prime minister's office denied.
Brown's supporters have questioned retired Gen. Richard Dannatt's motives, noting that he has since been picked to become a senior adviser to the opposition Conservative Party.
Meanwhile , Pakistan erupted in a wave of insurgent violence Thursday morning when gunmen attacked three security agency buildings in the eastern city of Lahore, killing at least seven and taking hostages, and a suicide bomber killed at least six at a police station in the country's northwest, according to officials.
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In Lahore, at least three people were killed when about half a dozen gunmen attacked a building occupied by the Federal Investigation Agency, Pakistan's equivalent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is involved in counter-terrorism investigations. Two of the dead were FIA officials.
At least five FIA officials are being held hostage. Pervez Rathore, the city's police chief said the attackers are wearing suicide-bomb vests. The FIA was targeted last year, too, when militants blew up a nine-story building where militants were being detained.
In a separate incident Thursday, gunmen fired at an elite police force training centre on Bedian Road in Lahore. And there was a third attack on another police training centre in the Manawa district outside Lahore.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of Lahore attacks, according to a private TV news channel, GEO News. Rana Sana Ullah, the law minister of the Punjab provincial government, said the Manawa police accademy was cleared of the militants. He said some five gunmen had stormed the accademy. The attackers have escaped.
In the suicide car bombing, police say the attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a police station in the Kohat district in northwest Pakistan, killing six people. Some 20 people were wounded, according to the Associated Press.
Rehman Malik, the Federal interior minister, said Thursday's events represented a concerted attack by the militants. "They are targeting the security forces," he told reporters. He said the FIA building has now been cleared; the fate of the hostages wasn't immediately clear. Police said two militants had been killed.
Thursday's violence, severe and coordinated even by the deadly standards of recent insurgent attacks in Pakistan, comes as the military is preparing a ground offensive in South Waziristan, a tribal area believed by U.S. and Pakistani officials to be the stronghold of Pakistan's Taliban and al Qaeda. The Taliban has vowed to step up attacks in Pakistan unless the offensive is called off.
The attacks come just days after an audacious attack on the Pakistani military's headquarters in Rawalpindi outside Islamabad that left 20 people dead after a prolonged standoff between the militants and commandos.
More than 120 people have died in attacks in the past week in Pakistan. On Monday, a suicide car bombing aimed at Pakistani soldiers in the country's northwest killed at least 41 people, officials said, even as the country was still reeling from the Rawalpindi attack and attacks on a U.N. office in Islamabad, a crowded urban market and most recently a rural military patrol. The strikes follow a relatively quiet summer and underscore the threat still posed by Islamist militants, despite military efforts against them.
Lahore has become a popular target for Pakistan's insurgents as militant groups from the northwestern tribal regions increasingly coordinate attacks with groups based in Punjab province, which includes Lahore. In March, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team during its visit to Lahore, killing six police officers. That attack, officials say, was masterminded by Mohammed Aqeel, also known as Dr. Usman, a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Punjabi militant outfit with strong links to the main Pakistan Taliban's faction and al Qaeda. Mr. Aqeel also led the attack on the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, officials say, and was captured in the attack.
Also in March, gunmen armed with assault rifles and hand grenades stormed the same police academy in Lahore, sparking a daylong battle with security forces that left at least 11 people dead before the assailants were overwhelmed by paramilitary troopers and police.
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