U.S. to Add Troops to NATO in Afghanistan

PORTOROZ, Slovenia â€”  NATO approved a plan Thursday to take command next month of peacekeeping across Afghanistan, after the United States pledged to add 12,000 troops to the force.

Pentagon officials said the transfer of troops currently in Afghanistan’s eastern region would entail the biggest deployment of American forces under foreign command since World War II.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization accord came as European nations failed to plug troop shortfalls identified by commanders battling the Taliban insurgency.

The United States will now provide 14,000 of about 32,000 NATO troops that will be under British command.

“I am grateful that the United States has decided to bring its forces under ISAF,� NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after a meeting in Slovenia, referring to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

“It should not be used as an argument that we can now rest on our laurels,� he said, urging other allies to come forward with extra troops for the fight in Afghanistan.

The U.S. troop transfer had been expected later this year, but alliance officials said battles with resurgent guerrillas in the south showed the urgent need to pool British, Dutch and Canadian troops under NATO with American forces.

Afghanistan is experiencing the most serious violence since the fundamentalist Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

Militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan, have tripled in some areas, the U.S. military said Thursday, despite a peace agreement in Pakistan meant to end the violence.

“There has been an increase in activity, certainly along the border region, especially in the southeast areas across from North Waziristan,� a U.S. military spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. John Paradis, said at a news conference.