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Leading NATO members snub appeal for extra Afghan troops - report

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Sept 12, IRNA
NATO Troops-Afghanistan
Four leading members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were reported Tuesday to have rejected appeals by General James Jones, the American Supreme Allied Commander Europe to send extra troops to Afghanistan.

According to the Times newspaper, Turkey, Germany, Spain and Italy have all effectively ruled out sending more troops. It said that the four allied nations had 'abandoned Washington on the key battleground of the War on Terror'.

Jones has been appealing for some 2,500 reinforcements to fight alongside American, British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers against insurgency forces in southern Afghanistan.

France, which has around 1,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan, was also said not to have committed itself either way, but military sources in Kabul quoted by the Times said that there were no expectations that Paris would contribute to a new battlegroup.

Overall, there are thought to be over 37,000 foreign troops from 26 nations in different missions in Afghanistan, with more than half from the US, over 5,000 from Britain and over 2,000 each from Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.

In an interview with the Financial Times Tuesday, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Richards said that the transatlantic military alliance has been asking for extra troops in Afghanistan more than a year ago.

The commander of NATO's 20,000-strong force in Afghanistan, said that countries were asked 18 months ago for a reserve battalion of 1,000 soldiers, but that the requirement had never been met.

Online daily magazine First Post separately reported that British commanders were trying to put together an extra battle group themselves of between 600 and 1,000 soldiers and support specialists to reinforce in their campaign against the Taliban.

It said the force is needed because 'not one of Britain's 25 allies has responded to NATO's call for 2,500 more combat troops to be sent."
Since moving a taskforce of over 3,000 troops into Kandahar and Helmand in spring, Britain has been at the front end of suffering casualties, losing 33 troops with many more wounded.

NATO officials are due to meet again on Wednesday in Brussels in an attempt to secure enough pledges to fill the gap, but First Post believed that British government were preparing to announce later this week about its reinforcement plans.

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