Defense Secretary Robert Gates said 7,500 more US troops are needed in Afghanistan to counter increasing violence by the Taliban. The United States already has 26,000 troops in Afghanistan. Gates said al-Qaeda has regrouped on the Pakistan border area.

Robert Gates: “There is no question that some of the areas in the frontier area have become areas where al-Qaeda has reestablished itself. But so far, we haven’t seen any significant consequence of that in Afghanistan itself.”