WASHINGTON, July 14: Democrat Barack Obama said on Monday that as president he would send at least two more combat brigades to Afghanistan, where US soldiers face rising violence and endured their deadliest attack in three years on Sunday.

The proposed force increase —about 7,000 troops — is part of Obama’s plan to pull combat troops out of Iraq and focus on the growing threat from a resurgent Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

“As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan,” Obama said in an op-ed published on Monday in The New York Times, a day before he plans a speech here on his vision for Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more non-military assistance to accomplish the mission there,” Obama said. “I would not hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.”—AP