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Extra 2,000 British troops on standby to go to Afghanistan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, April 17, IRNA - Two thousand troops have been designated by army chiefs for possible deployment to Afghanistan to boost Britain’s military presence to over 10,000 for the first time, it was reported Friday.

The UK has been under growing pressure from the US President Barack Obama to increase its military presence in Afghanistan in line with a surge in the number of American troops, but ministers have previously played down suggestions of transferring extra soldiers following the withdrawal from Iraq.

According to the Times newspaper, 12 Mechanised Brigade of more than 4,000 troops are on “high readiness for operations” after completing an intensive training program, but are waiting a final political decision over how many may be sent to Afghanistan to add to the 8,300 already deployed there.

But it reported that there was a dispute within the British government with the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury on opposing sides.

The Treasury was said to be concerned about the extra costs with Britain's military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq having already soared by over 50 per cent this year to more than £4.5bn.

The Times said that there was no plan to send the whole brigade to Afghanistan, but that 2,000 had been selected for potential deployment including specialist personnel from other regiments.

Britain’s Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt indicated to the paper last week of a possible increase, saying that 4,000 soldiers, who might have gone to Iraq, had been earmarked and “will feed into the Afghanistan cycle.”

But Dannatt also warned: “If we were to roll the 4,000 across to join the 8,000 in Afghanistan, I would only be willingly replicating the pressure on the Army that I’ve been trying to get us out from under.”

The judgement was that between 8,000 and 12,000 was “a reasonable number” to be in Afghanistan on a sustainable basis and would be somewhere in between.

The additional deployment would be extra to the some 800 troops the British government has already conceded will send to Afghanistan on a “temporary basis” just to cover the country’s elections later this year.