U.S. sends more mine-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. defense department is sending thousands of mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles to Afghanistan to protect troops from improvised explosive devices, said the military on Thursday.

According to the Pentagon, a total of 3,020 MRAPs have been shipped to Afghanistan, bringing to more than 15,000 the number of MRAPs delivered to the theater.

About half of the Afghanistan deliveries were by airlift and half by "multi-modal" delivery, a combination of airlift and sealift, it added.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a press conference on Wednesday that the improvised explosive devices became "more and more sophisticated over time" and have posed the biggest threat to troops in Afghanistan, combined with increasingly sophisticated Taliban attacks.

He said that the U.S. military would keep the MRAPs flowing there while building new versions specifically for the Afghan terrain.

"From an equipment standpoint, there's no higher priority than to get these vehicles in theater as rapidly as we can," Mullen said.