Taliban Promise Obama "Lots of Coffins"

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Taliban Promise Obama "Lots of Coffins"

World | December 2, 2009, Wednesday

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The Taliban say they will step up their fight in Afghanistan, after pledges by the US and its allies to send large reinforcements to the country.

A Taliban spokesman said such moves would "provoke stronger resistance".

US President Barack Obama, announcing a long-awaited strategy on Tuesday, said another 30,000 American troops would be deployed quickly in Afghanistan.

Nato's secretary general said non-US members would contribute at least 5,000 extra troops next year.

"Obama will witness lots of coffins heading to America from Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahamdi told AFP news agency.

"Their hope to control Afghanistan by military means will not become reality."

Obama reached his deployment decision after more than three months of deliberations and 10 top-level meetings with advisers.

In his speech at the West Point military academy in New York, he said the al-Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies had "begun to take control over swathes of Afghanistan" while committing "devastating acts of terrorism" against Pakistan.

US forces, he said, lacked "the full support they need to effectively train and partner with Afghan security forces and better secure the population".

"I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan," he told cadets. "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home."

The mission in Afghanistan, Obama said, was to defeat al-Qaeda, reverse the Taliban's momentum and deny them the ability to overthrow the government.