Wednesday, October 21, 2009 SYDNEY: Australia on Wednesday flagged moves to bring military operations in Afghanistan to a quick end, despite US and NATO calls for more troops to shore up the campaign against a resurgent Taliban militia.Defence Minister John Faulkner said Australia was studying how to complete the mission in the "shortest time-frame possible". Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan with no date set for their withdrawal."I've certainly asked the Australian Defence Force for any recommendations they have about ensuring we do complete that important role and responsibility both effectively, but in the shortest time-frame possible," he told media.Faulkner admitted Australia's move would affect the push by General Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, for an Iraq-style troop "surge" against the increasingly powerful Taliban militia."I've been discussing these issues with the chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, and obviously it's a critically important matter for me," he said."I'm not going to talk specifically about the approaches we'll take but I do acknowledge that there will be impacts on the approach that NATO and ISAF partners will be taking as a result of General McChrystal's 60-day assessment."McChrystal warned last month that the war could be lost within a year without extra resources to fight the resurgent Islamists, who were driven from power by the 2001 US-led invasion.President Barack Obama is considering boosting US troops by 40,000 to more than 100,000, in the face of growing public opposition in the United States.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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