NATO to Add 9,000 Troops in Kosovo

NATO’s top military official said the alliance would send an additional 9,000 troops to the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and was considering cutting its 33,000-strong force in Bosnia-Herzegovina by a third. Speaking during a visit to the Czech Republic, Italian Adm. Guido Venturoni said NATO planners had decided to increase the size of the Kosovo force to about 55,000 troops from the current level of 46,000. Venturoni, chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military committee, did not specify when the additional peacekeepers would be sent and which countries were to provide troops, or why the change was needed. He said a plan to reduce the Bosnian force would be discussed at a NATO meeting in September.