The chief of the US military, Admiral Michael Mullen, said Monday he needed three more brigades in Afghanistan to battle Taliban fighters and train Afghan forces. "We are short of forces there," Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a meeting of military officers. "I need at least an additional three brigades, one of them a training brigade," Mullen said. The US has urged NATO allies for months to deploy reinforcements to the strife-torn nation, where 70,000 soldiers are fighting under separate US and NATO commands. The month of June is already the bloodiest of the year for international forces with 32 soldiers killed so far. The United States deployed 3,500 marines this spring and several NATO countries have pledged to send more troops.