PM to announce extra Afghan troops
Gordon Brown is set to confirm that Britain is sending an extra 500 troops to Afghanistan after the conditions he placed on the reinforcement were met.
Sources said the Prime Minister would make the announcement in a statement to MPs setting out the next stage of his strategy for the mission.
And he will use it to renew calls on Pakistan to step up efforts to track down Osama bin Laden and other al Qaida leaders he believes are hiding in the north of the country.
Mr Brown pledged last month "in principle" to boost the British deployment to 9,500 subject to three conditions. They were a commitment by the Afghan government to provide sufficient homegrown troops for training, assurances that the British forces could be adequately equipped and that would be part of a coalition-wide deployment with each ally bearing its "fair share".
The PM announced at the weekend that an international conference would be held in London on January 28 to secure agreements from Afghan president Hamid Karzai of 50,000 trainee troops for training, a beefed up local police capability and action to tackle corruption. It is designed to prepare the way for the the gradual handover of provinces to Afghan control, at least five by the end of next year, which could lead to British forces being brought home.
He has already expressed confidence that Nato and other allies, other than the US, will come up with 5,000 more troops as part of the intensification of the international effort. After months of deliberation, American president Barack Obama is expected to announce that he will send up to 35,000 more US forces.
Meanwhile, Merlin helicopters have taken to the skies in Afghanistan beefing up the heavily-stretched air support for British troops. The aircraft arrived at Camp Bastion earlier this month. After 10 days of operational flying the helicopters have reached initial operating capability a month earlier than expected. The helicopters will be used for tasks including moving troops and equipment around Helmand and resupplying bases.
Mr Brown, who will hold talks with Pakistani prime minister Raza Gilani on Thursday, will also set out his expectations of Afghanistan's neighbour in the battle against the insurgency. He has made little attempt to hide his frustration at Pakistan's failure, eight years after the September 11 attacks in the USA, to track down the men responsible.
Some 30,000 Pakistani troops have been sent to South Waziristan as part of a drive to take on the Taliban in Pakistan, but Mr Brown made it clear he wants them also to target the leadership of al Qaida, who have evaded international forces since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
"The Pakistan government has started to take on the Taliban and to take on al Qaida in South Waziristan, but we have got to ask ourselves why, eight years after September 11, nobody has been able to spot or detain or get close to Osama bin Laden, nobody has been able to get close to Zawahiri, the number two of al Qaida," he said. "We have got to ask the Pakistani security forces, army and politicians to join us in the major effort that the world is committing resources to, not only to isolate al Qaida but to break them in Pakistan."
