Obama's troop plan could come ahead of Afghan runoff

• Source: Global Times
• [12:47 November 04 2009]
• Comments

US President Barack Obama said Wednesday he would reach a decision on his new war strategy for Afghanistan before the outcome of the Afghan election runoff due to take place November 7.

Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, said it's "possible" the president could decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan before then. Earlier, it was suggested that Obama administration wanted to wait until after the runoff to announce his decision.

The top US commander in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, has requested 40,000 more troops at the minimum, and beefed-up training of Afghan forces.

Afghan incumbent President Hamid Karzai agreed Tuesday to a runoff against his top rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah after many of Karzai's votes were invalidated as fraudulent.