WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a measure calling for President Barack Obama to pull US forces from Afghanistan, in an election-year test of his decision to escalate the war.

But dozens of Democrats in the House did support the pullout resolution, indicating division over war policy ahead of November’s congressional elections, in which Republicans are expected to make gains.

Sixty-five lawmakers, most of them Democrats, voted for the pullout resolution written by Democrat Dennis Kucinich, while 356 voted against.

It was the first challenge by the Democratic majority in Congress to US involvement in the conflict since Obama ordered 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and an offensive began last month to retake the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Helmand province.

Supporters of the resolution said it was time for US lawmakers to consider if they wanted to continue the nearly nine-year-old war in which about 1,000 US soldiers had been killed and hundreds of billions of dollars spent.

“Unless this Congress acts to claim its constitutional responsibility, we will stay in Afghanistan for a very, very long time at great cost to our troops and to our national priorities,” Kucinich said.

Detractors argued the US could not withdraw from Afghanistan before the government there was able to provide security because the Taliban could then provide safe haven for al Qaeda once again. reuters