'Stern' Gates calls for Afghanistan reinforcements
Friday, 01 Feb 2008 11:16
Robert Gates reportedly wants more troops for Afghanistan
US defence secretary Robert Gates has written a strongly-worded letter to Germany calling for more reinforcements in Afghanistan.
The Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper claims the letter, written to defence minister Josef Jung, sternly demands Germany should send more troops to the south
Asian state to boost Nato's credibility.
Germany currently has around 3,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly situated in the relatively peaceful north of the country.
According to the report Mr Gates has written similar letters to other
European Nato members.
He is expected to call for a "troop surge" in the country similar to that which created improvements in security in Iraq during 2007 at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Lithuania next week.
Yesterday Mr Gates said: "I don't think that the Europeans have, in fact, or our Nato allies have, in fact, asked the US to send more troops. They know that we already have more than half of the troops on the ground in Afghanistan."
He argued a recent increase in terrorist attacks by the Taliban was a direct result of their failure to make military progress against the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
"There is a rising security issue but it is because the Taliban are turning to terrorism, having failed in conventional military conflict with the Nato allies," he added.
"These are the actions of people whose conventional military efforts have failed."