UK wants more Nato hardware
2007-02-20 23:38
London - Britain accused its Nato allies
on Tuesday of failing to send enough troops and hardware to
fight the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
"This is a real test of the resolve and of the credibility
of Nato and I'm not sure that every Nato member understands the
significance of that," Kim Howells, the foreign office minister
responsible for Afghanistan told parliament.
"If they did, then I'm sure they'd be far more ready to put
more troops and more assets down into the south where the real
battle is going on at the moment," he said.
He added: "I know of countries that have helicopters that
might as well be parked up in leading European airports for the
amount of good they are doing in some parts of Afghanistan."
Nato has a force of more than 30 000 troops in Afghanistan
and many countries have contributed, but the brunt of most
fighting has been borne by US British, Canadian and Dutch
forces deployed in the restive south.
Washington and London have complained that other Nato
allies - while voting in favour of the mission - have sent too few
troops and aircraft, and placed restrictions on their forces
preventing them from being sent to the battle zone in the south.
Britain is due to increase its force in the south of
Afghanistan by 800 over the next few months, adding a third
battalion of infantry and bringing its total number of troops
above 6 000, nearly all deployed in the south.