Nato fails to secure extra troops for Afghanistan
Nato has 37 countries supporting its presence in Afghanistan
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Wednesday, 13, Sep 2006 08:19
Nato has failed to secure firm commitments from its member countries to provide additional troops urgently needed for its ongoing operation in Afghanistan.
The transatlantic organisation last week called for members to provide 2,500 more troops to add to the 18,500 already in Afghanistan, as existing forces deployed in the country's southern region struggle to combat greater than expected levels of insurgency by Taliban guerrillas.
Commenting following a specially convened conference in Brussels to try and resolve the problem of the shortage of international troops in Afghanistan, Nato spokesman James Appathurai told reporters: "No formal offers were made at the table."
He stressed that while some allies had given "positive indications" that they might consider committing extra forces to help British and Canadian troops currently battling Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, no final decision on the deployment of reinforcements was likely to be made until a meeting of Nato's defence ministers in Slovenia on September 28th and 29th.
But despite the failure of Nato to secure additional troops for its Afghanistan offensive during today's meeting, Mr Appathurai stressed that a ten-day operation to dislodge Taliban fighters from their strongholds in the southern Kandahar region was achieving its aim.
"Operation Medusa is going well and achieving its operational objective," he said, adding that Nato had gained control of around two-thirds of the territory covered by the operation.
Earlier today, British prime minister Tony Blair urged fellow Nato members to follow Britain's lead and commit more troops to Afghanistan.
Britain currently has about 5,500 troops in Afghanistan and, along with the US and Canada, makes up the bulk of the foreign personnel in the country.
"It is of fundamental importance to the security of this country, never mind the broader world, that we make sure the job in Afghanistan is done properly," said Mr Blair, who has urged Nato countries to come to an agreement over reinforcements, insisting that they have a duty to respond to the need for continuing troop numbers and a collective responsibility to fight al-Qaida and the remnants of the Taliban.
His comments follow those of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who yesterday warned that other countries must increase their support or run the risk of Afghanistan becoming a "failed state" in the same way it did after the west failed to intervene following the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
"We owe it to the people of Afghanistan to help them finish the job," she said.
Afghanistan has seen a notable upsurge in insurgency violence in recent months, particularly in the volatile south and many Nato soldiers have been killed in suicide bomb attacks and car bombings.
Nineteen British soldiers have been killed in September alone, including 14 who died when their RAF Nimrod plane crashed near Kandahar.