WASHINGTON'The United States has deployed a small number of ground troops in Afghanistan as part of a stepped-up effort to help opposition forces seeking to overthrow the Taliban regime, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed Tuesday.
In his first detailed comments on the issue, Rumsfeld said the Pentagon has sent fewer than 100 U.S. troops into Afghanistan to help find targets for airstrikes and to coordinate deliveries of food, ammunition and other supplies to the opposition forces.
He also suggested that the United States is increasingly throwing its weight behind the slow-moving ground campaign of the opposition Northern Alliance. He said \considerably more than 50 percent"" of the U.S. air sorties are now devoted to helping the anti-Taliban forces, adding that on Tuesday, 80 percent of the bombing raids served that purpose.
In recent days, critics have charged that the air campaign and ground offensives by the Northern Alliance are sputtering. The critics'who include some members of Congress'are urging the Bush administration to speed up the military campaign with a U.S. ground offensive.
By sending out military advisers known as ""liaison officers,"" the Bush administration has deepened its involvement with anti-Taliban groups. Although the United States considers the Northern Alliance a key ally, the administration has also sought to avoid appearing too closely aligned with the group for fear of offending other Afghan groups and Pakistan'a key supporter of the anti-terrorism campaign.
In another sign of the importance of the relationship with supporters of the U.S. effort, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. military commander for the Middle East region, visited Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, to hold talks with Northern Alliance officials Tuesday.
While Rumsfeld did not specify what kind of military personnel might be on the ground, from the description of their role, they likely include Army Green Berets. Some nonmilitary government personnel are also taking part in this mission, defense officials said.
Rumsfeld said the presence of the U.S. personnel has already improved the quality of the bomb targeting by providing ""the kind of very specific information that is very helpful to the war effort."" He also said the administration was leaving open the option of launching a ground campaign later.
""It is true that we do not have anything like the ground forces we had in World War II or Korea or the Gulf War,"" he said. ""But we have not ruled that out.""
