British Defence Secretary John Reid called on Tuesday for thousands of extra Nato troops to be sent to Afghanistan as the alliance expands into areas harbouring Taliban fighters and drug traffickers.
Reid made the remarks before departing for an informal meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation defence ministers in Berlin, who are expected to discuss United States and Nato deployment plans for next year in Afghanistan.
Reid told journalists in London that he was suggesting an additional ”multi-national force component which would be several thousands, including all the nations”, not just Britain.
The total need not even be as high as the 5 000 figure which has been the subject of wide speculation, Reid added.
Britain currently contributes around 900 troops to Nato’s 11 000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, made up mostly of troops from European nations.
The US deploys nearly 20 000 US troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan to hunt for remnants of the Islamic militant Taliban regime and their al-Qaeda Arab allies.
US-led forces drove the Taliban from power in November 2001 after it refused to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who masterminded the September 11 atrocities in New York and Washington.
Reid said that Nato forces will be moved from their present locations in the north of the country to a new base in Helmand province in the south and that a British-led provincial reconstruction team will be set up at Lashkar Gah.
Reid acknowledged that the deployment will be hazardous.
”The Taliban are still active in the area. So are drug traffickers. We must be prepared to support, even defend, the provincial reconstruction team,” Reid said.
The informal Nato meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to discuss the relationship between the 26-member alliance’s peacekeeping force and US combat troops amid British calls for a more integrated command.
”As there is a geographical increase in the [Nato] presence … I think there will be a willingness to bring the two missions closer together, to get closer synergy between them … to get more effect,” Reid said.
France and Germany are wary of such calls for fear their troops may be forced to switch from peacekeeping duties in support of national reconstruction to more combat roles.
Asked if he thought the US expedition, Operation Enduring Freedom, should be brought under Nato control, Reid said: ”I am not saying that at this stage.”
At the Nato conference in Istanbul in June last year, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain would deploy the headquarters group of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corp (ARCC) to Afghanistan in 2006.
London-based defence analyst Paul Beaver said the ARCC may send only a battalion of about 1 000 troops, even though it usually deploys a brigade of around 3 000.
But he said it would be a reinforced battalion with artillery, engineers and Apache helicopters in support of missions into unknown areas in Helmand province, where the Taliban and drug traffickers lurk.
”Nobody’s been there before. It’s the toughest nut to crack at the moment, which is why the Brits believe it’s been given to them,” Beaver said.
He described their mission as ”an enhanced peace enforcement role”.
Beaver added that Britain might enlist the support of troops from Canada, the Czech Republic and other countries during the Nato conference. – AFP
