U.S.: NATO must launch Afghan offensive
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The United States and its allies must launch their own offensive this spring against the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior defense official said Thursday, calling this a pivotal time in the nearly five-year-old war there.
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NOORDWIJK, Netherlands  - The United States led pressure on European allies to supply more troops to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan at NATO talks on Wednesday, but alliance sources said Washington could come away frustrated.
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NATO launched its biggest offensive in Afghanistan since the 2001 war on Tuesday, targetting the Taliban and drug lords as hundreds of people rallied in the east against U.S. soldiers killing civilians.
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Nato can prevail in Afghanistan - but only if members boost their commitment, the alliance's head warns.
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After launching wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while largely bypassing NATO, the Bush administration is now pressing for an expanded role for the alliance in both countries and signaling a new readiness to work more closely with its NATO allies.
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All 26 NATO nations have soldiers in Afghanistan and all agree the mission is their top priority. But the refusal of European allies to send more combat troops is forcing an already stretched U.S. military to fill the gap, and straining the Western alliance.
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The United States will lead pressure on European allies to supply more troops and equipment to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan at NATO talks on Wednesday but could come away frustrated, alliance sources said.
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NICE, France -- NATO and the United States said yesterday that they would merge their separate missions in Afghanistan, giving NATO command of an operation that for the first time will combine counterterrorism and peacekeeping activities.
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The Taliban will launch an offensive within months once the snows melt, but they are effectively a beaten force, according to the outgoing head of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
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SEVILLE, Spain  - The United States stepped up pressure on NATO allies on Thursday to send more troops to crush an expected Taliban offensive in the coming weeks.
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The West must win the war against Islamic  militants in Afghanistan or face attacks in their own  countries, NATO Secretary-General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer said on  Thursday.
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MUNICH, Germany  - NATO expects to have smashed most of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan within the next two years but will need to keep troops there after 2009, the alliance's chief said on Saturday.
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The Taliban promised a spring offensive of thousands of suicide bombers as the United States, doubling its combat troops in Afghanistan, took over command of the 33,000-strong NATO force in the country on Sunday.
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Survival of the NATO alliance, a cornerstone of American security policy for decades, is at stake in the debate over how the United States and Europe should share the burden of fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
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President George W. Bush said on Thursday 3,200 more U.S. troops being deployed to Afghanistan will help NATO forces launch a spring offensive against the Taliban.
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The United States, which has just doubled its combat troops in Afghanistan, took over command of the 33,000-strong NATO force in the country on Sunday amid warnings of a bloody spring offensive by the Taliban.
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SEVILLE, Spain  - The United States stepped up pressure on NATO allies on Thursday to send more troops to Afghanistan to crush an expected Taliban offensive, saying the next few weeks would be pivotal in battling the insurgency.