Obama still mulling troop strength options

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama's decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan still is expected within the next few weeks, a White House spokesman said Monday.

"(The) president understands, as I think everyone does, the urgency of getting this decision right," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said when asked whether the deaths of 14 Americans in Afghanistan added any impetus to making a decision faster. "We are reminded on an almost daily basis of the sacrifice that thousands have made and continue to make to protect our freedom. So I think ... the president understands that and the president is enormously humbled by their sacrifices, as I think all Americans are."

Obama met with his national security team Monday to resume discussions on Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for more 40,000 more troops. McChrystal is the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

"I said this last week, it could come at any moment. So as soon as he has it, he'll make it," Gibbs said, still holding to the "several week" timetable.

Gibbs said "I just don't know" whether a decision would be made before the Nov. 7 presidential runoff between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and rival candidate Abdullah Abdullah.

Gibbs offered condolences to the families of the service members and embassy personnel who died in two helicopter crashes.

The State Department issued a statement mourning "the loss of three civilian members of our embassy community" and the seven members of the military who were killed in a helicopter crash in Western Afghanistan. Four other U.S. military personnel were killed in a separate helicopter crash.