US sends more Marines into Afghanistan

The US military has announced that it is to bulk up its presence in Afghanistan by sending thousands of Marines into the country.

Some 2,200 Marines and sailors of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit will shortly be deployed to Afghanistan, the US Joint Staff of Staff said today.

The purpose of the deployment is to aid other coalition forces and deny sanctuary to terrorists and to capture or kill al-Qaeda or Taliban members, the US military said.

The move follows on from large scale sweeps by Pakistani and US forces against suspected Al Qaeda members in the moutainous tribal areas straddling the Afghan/Pakistan border.

About 13,000 members of the US armed forces are in Afghanistan at the moment. The Marines will join up with the 2,000 Marines already stationed in the country.

Officials would not say how long the deployment will last, but the typical duration for such a deployment is six months.

US forces are currently involved in searches for weapons and intelligence on the movements of al-Qaeda suspects. This week, weapons caches were found near Bagram and Shkin, and an Afghan citizen turned in a cache with more than 400 recoilless rifle rounds and 100 mortar rounds near Gardez, a spokesperson from the US Central Command stated.

Elsewhere, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has revealed that the US would fund construction of 152 new schools and the refurbishment of 255 more within the next six months. He made the announcement at a ceremony opening the new school year, the third since the collapse of the Taliban regime.

An estimated 5.5 million students are expected to return to the classroom this year, 1.5 million more than last year. And the percentage of girls attending school grew to 36% last year and that number is expected to further increase this year.

Since 2002 the United States has constructed and rehabilitated over 200 schools, reached 16,000 students through accelerated learning programs, trained 2,100 teachers, and distributed 10.3 million textbooks.

(gmcg)