U.S. sending 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The United States will send an additional force of about 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan this spring to help NATO troops and Afghan security forces confront rising Taliban violence, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The U.S. troop expansion, which increases the number of U.S. forces deployed to Afghanistan by more than 10 percent, follows months of U.S. efforts to persuade NATO allies to provide extra combat forces.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan over the past two years, with the hard-line Islamist Taliban fighting a guerrilla war in the south and east and carrying out high-profile suicide and car bombings across the country.

Extra U.S. combat forces are needed to help thwart an expected offensive by Taliban militants as snows melt in the coming months, U.S. defense officials say.

President George W. Bush approved the Marine deployment on the recommendation of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The Pentagon said 2,200 troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit will be sent to serve under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, in southern Afghanistan, which is the heart of the Taliban resistance.

About 1,000 Marines from another battalion will expand the training Afghan national security forces.

The move, which was widely anticipated, suggests the Bush administration cannot expect NATO to provide a large share of extra combat forces in southern Afghanistan, which are needed to help clear and retain territory taken from militants, analysts said.

"NATO's need is in the south at the moment. But what the U.S. has found is that most NATO countries are not willing to deploy forces to conduct combat operations where they're needed most," said Seth Jones, an Afghanistan expert at RAND Corp.

The prospect of sending forces into combat is too politically sensitive for some NATO countries, while others believe the battle against the Taliban can best be waged through development rather than military force, analysts said.

The United States has about 27,000 troops in Afghanistan -- the most since leading the 2001 invasion. About half serve in a 40,000-strong NATO-led force, while the rest conduct missions ranging from counterterrorism to training Afghan troops.

Gates met with NATO allies in Scotland in December and later signaled a shift away from pressing NATO nations to make difficult decisions to provide combat troops.

The defense secretary has suggested that allies could help with other areas of the mission of rebuilding Afghanistan. (Editing by Patricia Wilson and David Wiessler)

http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSN15503081