Obama approves more funds for wars

US President Barack Obama has signed a spending bill allocating USD 37 billion to the unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The new funds bring the total cost of the two US-led wars in the region to USD 1 trillion since 2001.

The spending bill had been pending in Congress due to a split among the Democrats regarding the Afghan war.

The legislation was finally passed after strong support from the Republicans.

Obama signed the measure two days after it cleared the House of Representatives.

On Thursday, the US president met with top officials including Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, as well as high-ranking military and intelligence personnel in the Situation Room of the White House to discuss the Afghan war.

This was the first meeting the president held regarding the US occupation of Afghanistan since the leak of classified documents was revealed by whistle-blower website Wikileaks.

Some 140,000 US-led troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan. A further 10,000 troops are expected to be deployed to the war-ravaged country in the coming weeks.

The troop surge will be implemented despite a dramatic decline in public support for the Afghan war across Europe and the US due to NATO’s mounting death toll in the country.

The US-led forces are experiencing some of their deadliest days in Afghanistan since the start of the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.