Skip to main content

Georgian troops will be trained by US for Afghanistan

Saturday, August 15, 2009 ::WASHINGTON: The US military on Friday said it will launch a training mission in Georgia to help a battalion prepare for deployment to Afghanistan, a move that risks aggravating relations with Russia.
A team of US Marines will leave in the next few days to begin training a 750-strong infantry battalion that heads to Afghanistan in 2010, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman toldreporters.

The training, which formally starts next month, will be designed "to get them ready for their spring 2010 deployment and to ensure they're able to operate alongside ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) partners," said Whitman.
The NATO-led ISAF coalition comprises more than 100,000 troops, with about 62,000 forces from the United States.
The number of Marines in the training contingent will fluctuate but will number as many as 60-70 instructors, Whitman said.
The first influx of Marines will arrive in Georgia beginning on August 15th, said State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.
The training program "will commence on September 1st to prepare that Georgian battalion... for service in Afghanistan," said Crowley.
A similar US training effort for troops headed to Iraq was suspended last year when Georgia waged a brief war with Russian forces over South Ossetia.
About 2,000 Georgian troops were deployed in Iraq from August 2003 but were rushed back in a conflict that saw Russia crush the ex-Soviet state's US-backed military.
Whitman said the training mission was solely focused on the Afghan mission but Moscow has accused Washington of meddling in the region and rearming Georgia.

Russia views expanding NATO influence in ex-Soviet states near Russian borders as a major security threat.

Moscow and Western governments are in intensifying competition for influence in Georgia due to its vital location astride a geographical corridor that could be used to transport energy supplies from Central Asia directly to Western markets.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...