NATO Plans to Send Thousands More Peacekeepers to Afghanistan

NATO agreed in principle Monday to expand its peacekeeping mission beyond the Kabul area for the first time, two years after the U.S. went to war to oust the Taliban.

In Brussels, the organization sought United Nations permission Monday to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to support the peacekeeping effort.

NATO has 5,500 troops in Afghanistan under a U.N. mandate to maintain order in Kabul, and diplomats in Brussels said it was backing German plans to send soldiers to the northern city of Kunduz once the U.N. Security Council approves a wider mandate. Diplomats said seven other cities also could be covered by the expanded force.

Afghanistan has in recent weeks seen its bloodiest fighting since the overthrow of the Taliban government late in 2001. More than 300 people have been killed since the start of August.

An Afghan official said Monday that the Taliban suffered a major blow when a close aide to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the group’s supreme leader, was killed in a clash in the south of the country 10 days ago.

News of the death of Mullah Abdul Razzaq Nafees came just days after the Taliban confirmed that Mullah Abdur Rahim, its top military commander in southern Afghanistan, had been killed.

But the 11,500 U.S.-led military troops -- separate from the NATO peacekeepers -- have failed to net Omar or Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. President Hamid Karzai’s government has little authority beyond Kabul, the capital, and has been pushing for the peacekeeping force to expand.

The rest of the country is dominated by regional warlords.

The U.S. military said its troops suffered no casualties from rocket and ground attacks by Islamic militants Saturday and Sunday in the provinces of Khowst, Paktika, Nangarhar and Kandahar, but one attacker was killed. The 36th U.S. combat death was reported Sept. 29.

Today is the second anniversary of the bombing of Afghanistan by U.S. warplanes that launched the war.

In addition to the troops in other cities, NATO also endorsed the principle of other limited, temporary deployments outside Kabul, for example to protect elections due next year.

In recent weeks, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been struggling to raise the thousands of troops needed to move beyond Kabul but there was optimism now that enough troops would be found.

Germany and Canada provide the bulk of the peacekeepers in Kabul. Most new troops would come from Europe.

One official said an expanded mission might be announced as early as next week.