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Rumsfeld: More US Special Troops Teams Ready to Go into Afghanistan
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that his country has several more teams of special forces teams ready to go into Afghanistan.
Rumsfeld had previously indicated there are fewer than 100 US troops now in northern Afghanistan and that others had been in and out of the south.
"I'd like to see as soon as humanly possible the number of teams go up by three or four times," Rumsfeld said at a press conference at Pentagon.
He said that the US military is needed to improve targeting for American bombers beyond what is being done by what he has described as a small number of US special forces now on the ground in northern Afghanistan.
On Thursday, US jets attacked a strategic Taliban garrison that blocks the way for fighters of the northern alliance to regain the northern city of Taloqan. That followed a day of the most intense bombing in the air campaign so far along the front line blocking the alliance's way to the capital, Kabul.
The Pentagon has said success of the strikes has improved in recent days since US troops went in on the ground to help the group with communications and pinpointing targets for warplanes.
US Troops Operating on Ground in Northern Afghanistan US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that his country has a "modest" number of ground troops in Afghanistan.
"We do have a very modest number of ground troops in the country and they are there for liaison purposes," Rumsfeld said at a press briefing at Pentagon.
He said that US ground troops were in north Afghanistan and were helping provide targeting information for the US bombing campaign.
Ground Forces had also been in and out of southern Afghanistan, he added. Rumsfeld does not rule out a more expansive ground campaign in Afghanistan.
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