Top German court rejects Afghan jet complaint

KARLSRUHE, Germany, July 3 (Reuters) Germany's top court rejected today a complaint that could have forced the government to recall six Tornado reconnaissance jets it sent to Afghanistan earlier this year at NATO's request.

The Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court said the mission did not violate NATO's defensive mandate, as parliamentarians from the new Left party had argued.

A court statement said the mission served ''Euro-Atlantic'' security interests by helping with the rebuilding of the Afghan state.

German lawmakers approved deployment of the jets in March and they left for Afghanistan in April, meeting a NATO request to help boost intelligence-gathering ahead of an expected spring offensive by Taliban insurgents.

The Left party, a new grouping of ex-communists and disaffected former members of the ruling coalition's Social Democrats, seeks an end to all German foreign military missions.

Germany has around 3,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul and the relatively stable northern region. But the mission has grown increasingly unpopular in Germany, a country which is still coming to terms with its military role six decades after the defeat of the Nazis.

Public concerns have grown since government officials warned last month that Germany's presence in Afghanistan had heightened the risk of militant attacks on home soil.

Some members of the Social Democrats (SPD), which rule in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, are reluctant to see the government renew Germany's Afghanistan mandate in the autumn.

The SPD, which sees itself as a party of peace, is worried about losing ground to the Left party.

Reuters GT VV1655