WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military needs to deploy more troops to Afghanistan to fight against a possible winter campaign waged by militants, a commander said on Friday.

    Jeffrey Scholoesser, a U.S. major general commanding U.S. and international troops in eastern Afghanistan, said at a Pentagon video teleconference that he believes rebels were preparing for a winter campaign for the first time this year which would bring higher violence than any previous winter since 2002.

    "I would say definitely they're looking for an opportunity to try to attempt what we would call spectacular attacks like we've seen from time to time in Kabul and other cities, such as in Khost," he said.

    Scholoesser noted the need of the U.S. military in Afghanistan for additional troops in the next few months, but he said his troops "are not losing this war if those troops don't show up."

    Currently, there are about 37,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, about one-fifth of the total 148,000 troops in Iraq.

    President George W. Bush has been recommended by the Pentagon that he should send about 4,500 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan early next year.

    In the first eight months this year, the number of insurgent attacks has increased by 20 to 30 percent from the same period last year, according to the Pentagon.