US asking Germany for 2,000 more troops in Afghanistan: report
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Dec 2, IRNA -- US President Barack Obama has reportedly asked Germany to send 2,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan, the daily Leipziger Volkszeitung cited government officials as saying in Berlin on Wednesday.
The additional German soldiers could be used as part of a planned major US-led military attack in Afghanistan during the first half of 2010. According to the report, German military planners are already preparing to boost the troop size in the war-stricken country.
The German contingent could be deployed in hard-fought southern and eastern Afghanistan where NATO forces are fighting a fierce Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgency.
There are presently around 4,500 German soldiers stationed in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The German Defense Ministry denied recent news reports which said that the German troop deployment in Afghanistan could be raised to 7,000.
The western military operation in Afghanistan is extremely unpopular among Germans.
Last week, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on European countries to send more soldiers to Afghanistan.
"It is of utmost importance that an American announcement of increased troop numbers is followed by additional troop contributions from other allies," Rasmussen said at a joint press briefing with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin last Thursday.
"Right now I am travelling and contacting a number of allies with the aim to urge them to increase their contributions to our mission in Afghanistan," he added.
Rasmussen said it was too soon to speak of exact troop numbers for Afghanistan.
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