Britain approves extra Afghanistan troops-sources

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) Britain will send a wave of extra troops to Afghanistan ahead of an expected spring offensive by the Taliban, government sources said today.

The decision, which comes days after Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain would start withdrawing soldiers from Iraq, will involve more than 1,000 extra forces, the Guardian newspaper reported. Sky television said that it would be hundreds.

Cabinet minister Peter Hain said Defence Secretary Des Browne was considering troops levels for Afghanistan at the moment and the government sources said an announcement to parliament was likely on Monday.

Britain already has some 5,000 troops based in the southern Helmand province, at the sharp end of the NATO force in areas where a Taliban insurgency flared up last year.

Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since US-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 for harbouring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network after September 11.

''What the Secretary of Defence Des Browne ... is considering now (is) what are the appropriate level of forces to make sure we can have an effective fight in which we roll the Taliban back and stop them recapturing Afghanistan,'' Hain, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, told Sky television.

NATO has more than 33,000 troops in Afghanistan but Britain and the United States have struggled to persuade other members to send more, or lift the restrictions over the deployment to southern and eastern Taliban strongholds.

Italian president Romano Prodi resigned earlier this week after his government suffered a bruising defeat over foreign policy issues, including keeping Italian troops in Afghanistan.

Blair has said Afghanistan is the frontline in the West's war against Islamist militants and warned NATO's credibility is on the line there.

His government's frustration at lack of support from European allies was evident this week.

Senior Foreign Office minister Kim Howells told parliament some European countries' helicopters ''might as well be parked up in leading European airports for the amount of good they are doing in Afghanistan''.

Britain said on February 1 it would send an additional 800 troops to the region. The latest push will cost the government 250 million pounds, the Guardian said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence declined to comment.

''As always we keep our force levels in Afghanistan under constant review ... if we are going to make changes to those force numbers we announce it to parliament in the usual way,'' the spokesman said.

REUTERS BDP BD1715

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