Germany Says Afghan Security Takeover To Begin Next Year
VOA News 09 July 2010
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle says NATO troops will begin transfering security responsibility to local forces in three to four Afghan provinces next year.
Westerwelle said Friday that at least one of the affected provinces would be in the north, where German troops are deployed. He added details of the handover would be worked out during a NATO summit in November.
During a speech to Germany's lower house of parliament, the foreign minister defended the country's unpopular mission in Afghanistan as "necessary." Westerwelle says Germany will remain committed to Afghanistan so that Afghans can provide stability for themselves.
Germany has some 4,500 troops in Afghanistan, the third largest contributor to the NATO mission. German leaders say they want to begin bringing troops home by 2013.
Britain's defense ministry says two British service members were killed Thursday in separate explosions in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province. June was the deadliest month for international forces in Afghanistan, with more than 100 NATO troops killed.
Meanwhile, NATO announced Friday that a joint international-Afghan force captured a Taliban commander responsible for bringing Pakistani militants across the border into Afghanistan to launch attacks.
The alliance said the Taliban commander was arrested Tuesday in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. NATO says the man facilitated a recent influx of operatives for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based militant group.
In a separate statement, NATO also said a communications error was to blame for the accidental deaths of six Afghan government soldiers in a NATO airstrike in Ghazni province earlier this week.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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