US to send 2500 troops to N. Afghanistan

US commanders in Afghanistan are planning to deploy about 2,500 more troops to the North of the country due to what they describe as concerns about an increasing Taliban presence there.

The “tentative” plan includes trainers for Afghan security forces as well as possible joint military operations with German forces already in the area. The purpose of the joint operations would be to protect vital supply lines.

The reinforcements are part of the 30,000-troop increase ordered by President Barack Obama in December to turn the war around. Most of the 10,000 that have arrived so far have been sent to the volatile South which is the hotbed of Taliban militant attacks.

Plans for the relocation of forces were formulated after a high-profile German commander said the US-led force was planning an offensive in the northern Kunduz province to fend off the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.

“The operation would be ‘similar’ to the offensive currently underway in the southern province of Helmand involving 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops,” General Bruno Kasdorf, chief of staff of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), told German ARD public radio on Thursday.

Northern Afghanistan, which has long experienced relative calm, has seen a spike in violence in recent months.