Germany wants to send more troops to Afghanistan
Sat 9 Jul 2005
BERLIN, July 9 (Reuters) - Germany wants to increase the number of its soldiers in Afghanistan by around a third, a Defence Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.
The Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, would be asked to approve a government request to extend the soldiers' mandate beyond Oct. 13 and make as many as 3,000 soldiers available, up from the current 2,200, the spokesman said.
"An upper limit of 3,000 is planned to enable the force to react more effectively to security developments and to increase flexibility when rotating troops," he added.
Hundreds of people have died in stepped-up militant activity in Afghanistan in the run-up to parliamentary elections on Sept. 18.
The German contingent is attached to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is focused on peacekeeping in the Afghan capital Kabul and the north and plans to extend its presence to other areas of the country.
The spokesman said the troops would continue to provide logistical support to the Afghan government in disrupting the drugs industry but would not be taking an active role in destroying stocks of narcotics. The United Nations has estimated that drug exports account for more than 60 percent of Afghanistan's economy and it risked turning into a "narco-state".
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