NITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Thursday extended the mandate of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan for a further year and called on countries to boost its strength amid a grueling war against Taliban fighters.
The International Security Assistance Force is not a UN operation but was set up by the Security Council at the end of 2001 and is authorized by annual council resolutions.
ISAF, which numbers 67,700 troops from 42 nations according to latest NATO figures, with the United States by far the biggest contributor, accounts for some two-thirds of the foreign troops in Afghanistan.
US forces make up most of the remaining foreign military presence. Thursday's resolution extended ISAF's authorization for 12 months from next Tuesday.
It said the council "recognizes the need to further strengthen ISAF to meet all its operational requirements, and in this regard calls upon member states to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources to ISAF."
While the renewal was routine, it came amid a heated debate in Washington over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, and popular pressure in some other contributing nations to pull out their soldiers.
Since US-backed forces overthrew the Taliban government in 2001, Afghanistan has been mired in a conflict pitting Afghan and foreign troops against Taliban guerrillas.
The conflict has grown in intensity, with US and NATO casualties now at record levels.
Ambassador John Sawers of Britain, which has 9,000 soldiers in ISAF, denied that the resolution specifically called on countries to increase troop levels but said it urged "that efforts should be sustained and that we should have the forces there necessary to deliver on the tasks."
He said the resolution, passed unanimously by all 15 council members, "underlines the extent of international support for the international effort" in Afghanistan.
Diplomats said passage of the resolution had been slightly delayed by wrangling over the wording of a passage on the sensitive subject of civilian casualties.
The United States and NATO have been criticized by Afghans over bombing raids that killed civilians.
The adopted text called for "continued enhanced efforts" by ISAF to minimize civilian casualties. The Security Council also issued a statement that "condemned in the strongest terms" a bomb attack that killed 17 people outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Thursday.
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