Britain to send extra troops to Afghanistan

BRITAIN: Britain is expected to announce the deployment of more than 1,000 extra troops to Afghanistan to help combat an anticipated offensive by Taliban insurgents in coming months, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.

The deployment, if confirmed, will come just days after Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain would begin withdrawing soldiers from Iraq, another key battleground. Defence Minister Des Browne was due to annnounce the increase in forces and equipment in Afghanistan on Monday after the plan was presented to Blair’s cabinet on Thursday, the Guardian said.

The push was expected to cost the government 250 million pounds ($490 million), it added in an unsourced report.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence declined to comment.

“As always we keep our force levels in Afghanistan under constant review ... if we are going to make changes to those force numbers we announce it to parliament in the usual way,” the spokesman said.

Britain said on Feb. 1 it would send an additional 800 troops to southern Afghanistan, in a sign that NATO is beefing itself up ahead of what commanders expect will be a renewed wave of Taliban attacks in spring.

A 30,000-strong NATO force is in Afghanistan supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai, which took power after the strictly Islamist Taliban were toppled in 2001.

Britain already has some 5,000 troops on the ground. Based in Helmand province, they are at the sharp end of the NATO force in areas where a Taliban insurgency flared up last year.

As London increases its footprint in Afghanistan, it is stepping back from Iraq. Blair on Wednesday said Britain would be withdrawing almost a quarter of its 7,100 troops from Iraq in the coming months. But British soldiers would remain into 2008 if Iraq wanted them to provide support and training.

London, Friday, Reuters