24 December 2008 | FOCUS News Agency

Washington. The Air Force is preparing for an expanded Middle East mission, transporting fighting units and supplies, increasing surveillance flights, and beefing up a network of air bases across the region as US military strategy shifts from Iraq to Afghanistan, according to Pentagon officials, The Boston Globe reported.

President-elect Barack Obama's strategy calls for beginning the withdrawal of the 140,000 US troops in Iraq, where violence has stabilized, and nearly doubling the 30,000-member American force in Afghanistan to reverse a mounting insurgency by the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The strategic shift next year will have to be choreographed in large part by the Air Force, which has begun identifying the mix of additional fighter jets, bombers, cargo aircraft, and intelligence units needed to pull off what is shaping up to be the most complex redeployment of US military forces in decades, according to top commanders.

http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n164161

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