Ken Thomas and Lolita C. Baldor

AP, 09/ 4/09 08:55 PM |

WASHINGTON —

Key Senate Democrats signaled Friday that any push by President Barack Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan is likely to hit resistance on Capitol Hill, deepening a growing political divide on the war even within his own party.

Speaking on a day when a U.S. bombed tanker trucks hijacked by the Taliban killing 70 (90 later) people, including some civilians, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said the U.S. must focus more on building the Afghan security forces. His cautionary stance was echoed by Sen. Jack Reed, who is also on the committee and spent two days in Afghanistan this week with Levin.

The senators will return to Washington next week, just as Obama receives a new military review of Afghanistan strategy that officials expect will be followed up by a request for at least a modest increase in U.S. troops battling (Taliban fighters) in the eight-year-old war.

Obama came into office pledging to shift U.S. focus from the war in Iraq to the Afghan fight, which had long been a secondary priority. But as war-weary Americans have watched another 21,000 troops go to Afghanistan, and U.S. casualties rise, support for the war has waned.

As a result, lawmakers say they want the U.S. to more quickly train and equip the Afghan Army and police so that the embattled country can take over its own security needs.

"There are a lot of ways to speed up the numbers and capabilities of the Afghan army and police. They are strongly motivated," Levin said from Kuwait. "I think that we should pursue that course ... before we consider a further increase in combat forces beyond what's already been planned to be sent in the months ahead."

Levin said there is a growing consensus on the need to expedite the training and equipping of the Afghan army to improve security in Afghanistan, where 51 U.S. troops died in August, making it the bloodiest month for American forces there since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.

In a separate call, Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said the U.S. must use a multi-pronged approach: build up the Afghan Army, send more civilians to Afghanistan to provide economic and political assistance, and reach out to Taliban supporters who are willing to recognize the Kabul government.

NATO probes airstrike on tankers in Afghanistan

By Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer –

September 5, 2009

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan –

NATO investigated Saturday whether villagers siphoning fuel were among scores killed in a U.S. airstrike on two tanker trucks hijacked by the Taliban, while a bomb blast wounded four German troops in the same northern Afghan province.

A 10-member investigative team flew over the site on the Kunduz river where a U.S. jet called in by the German military hit the tankers with two 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, triggering a fireball that killed up to 70 (90 in later reports) people before dawn Friday.

The airstrike came despite efforts by the top U.S. general in Afghanistan to curb use of air power and reduce civilian casualties, which have strained relations between the multinational NATO force and the Afghan government.

The investigative team led by U.S. Rear Admiral Gregory J. Smith, NATO's director of communications in Kabul, also spoke to two injured villagers in the Kunduz hospital, including a boy and a farmer with shrapnel wounds. Both said they were not at the river with the tanker trucks when the bombs fell but were standing a long distance away.

"We don't yet know how many civilians" were at the site of the blast, Smith said. "Unfortunately, we can't get to every village."

A bomb blast, meanwhile, hit a German military convoy Saturday, damaging at least one vehicle. Kunduz provincial police chief, Abdullah Razaq Yaqoobi, said a suicide car bomb caused the blast, though German military officials said it was a roadside bomb.

An AP reporter at a nearby German base said the blast created a shock wave that could be felt inside the base. German officials said four soldiers were wounded in the attack, none seriously, the AP reporter said.

NATO said Friday's airstrike targeted (Taliban fighters) who had hijacked two tankers carrying fuel to NATO forces in Kabul, but Afghan officials said dozens of villagers also died in the blasts as they tried to retrieve fuel from the tankers.

The deputy U.N. representative to Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, said Saturday he was "very concerned" about the reports.

"Steps must also be taken to examine what happened and why an airstrike was employed in circumstances where it was hard to determine with certainty that civilians were not present," Galbraith said.

The German military said they feared the hijackers would use the fuel tankers to carry out a suicide attack against its base nearby.

Germany said 57 fighters were killed and no civilians were believed in the area at the time, based on surveillance of the tankers by a drone aircraft. NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, however, acknowledged some civilians may have died, and the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan government announced a joint investigation.

Local government spokesman Mohammad Yawar estimated that more than 70 people were killed, at least 45 of them militants. Investigators were trying to account for the others, he said.

The local governor, Mohammad Omar, said 72 were killed and 15 wounded. He said about 30 of the dead were identified as (alleged Taliban fighers), including four Chechens and a local Taliban commander. The rest were probably fighters or their relatives, he said.

Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, and villagers buried some in a mass grave.

(Later news reports put the death toll to 90 Afghanis).