US Steps up Military Campaign in Afghanistan

The United States has stepped up its military campaign in Afghanistan by deploying more special forces and escalating bombing in the Central Asian country, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday.

"The forces on the ground have gone up since I made that comment, about two and a half times, and there are others prepared to go in as soon as weather and circumstances on the ground permit," Rumsfeld said at a briefing, without providing any exact number of the troops.

The secretary said the daily sorties by US warplanes had reached 120 as the US forces escalated bombing against targets of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Vowing to deal decisively with the enemy, Rumsfeld noted that it would take months and not years to topple the Taliban regime and get rid of the al Qaeda.

Also present at the briefing, Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the US forces had used two "Daisy Cutter" bombs, each weighed at 15,000 pounds (about 6,800 kgs) in attacking ground targets in the past week.

He said the bombs are shoved out of a C-130 aircraft and can " make a heck of a bang" when they go off.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday that the US military has so far called 52,457 troops to active duty, surpassing the 50,000 ceiling which President George W. Bush authorized in an executive order in September.

Secretary Rumsfeld reportedly informed the White House recently of the Defense Department's plan to go beyond the original authorization on the number of mobilization.

The US Air Force so far leads the mobilization with 28,989 troops, followed by the Army at 14,125, the Navy at 6,533, the Coast Guard at 2,198 and Marine Corps at 612.

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2001)