More Troops Into The Fight

More Troops Than Expected May Be Sent To Afghanistan
By Associated Press

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that more U.S. troops than originally planned could go to Afghanistan by the end of! the year.

Gates told troops at Fort Drum in New York that there will be "maybe some increase -- but not a lot" in troop levels beyond the 68,000 servicemembers the Obama administration approved. That includes 21,000 that Obama ordered added this spring.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took over as commander for all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last month, is to advise Washington in the next few weeks on his views of how to win the eight-year war.

McChrystal is nearing the end of a 60-day review of troop requirements in Afghanistan and will soon provide that report to Gates.

Also Thursday, Taliban commanders threatened to kill a captured American soldier unless the U.S. military stops operations in two districts of southeastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed last week to be holding the American soldier, whom the U.S. military earlier described as possibly being in enemy hands.

Abdullah Jalali, a spokesman for Taliban commander Mawla! vi Sangin, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the soldier was healthy. U.S. spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias declined to comment on the Taliban's demands.

Jalali said Taliban leader Mohammed Omar will decide the soldier's fate. The U.S. military has said the soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit June 30 and was probably captured. The Taliban claimed on its website July 6 that it was holding the soldier. The military has not identified the soldier but says his family has been notified that he is missing.