Obama to deploy extra soldiers along Mexico border

AFP - US President Barack Obama is to send up to 1,200 more troops to the joint border with Mexico and ask for 500 million dollars in extra funds to battle drug-trafficking, a US official said Tuesday.
  
"As part of his comprehensive plan to secure the Southwest border, President Obama will request 500 million dollars in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities," a senior administration official said.
  
"The president will also deploy up to an additional, requirements-based 1,200 National Guard troops to the border," he added.
  
The extra troops would "give immediate support to counternarcotics enforcement" and help with intelligence, he added.
  
The move comes after Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week urged US lawmakers to halt the flow of arms over the border into Mexico, in a bid to stem his country's bloody drug warfare.
  
More than 22,700 people have died in surging drug-related attacks since Calderon launched a military clampdown on organized crime, involving some 50,000 troops, at the end of 2006.