Afstan update: UK general takes command of expanding NATO mission
As far as I can see no major Canadian print or electronic media have reported this (only CANOE online); I wonder why as this NATO expansion will have an important impact on the Canadian Forces' Afstan mission--their transfer in three months from the command of US Operation Enduring freedom to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Note also that US troops will be serving under NATO (i.e. foreign) command in six months or so.
Britain took command of NATO's Afghan peacekeeping force on Thursday as a tide of violence raised apprehension about the alliance's planned takeover of security duties across the country from U.S. forces...
"We aim to extend and deepen the areas in which the government of Afghanistan and the wider international community can safely and coherently operate in the interests of the people," the new British commander, Lieutenant General David Richards, said in a speech at a change-of-command ceremony...
ISAF now has about 9,000 troops in the relatively peaceful capital, the north and west.
Under its so-called phase three expansion, it will take over command of about 7,000 British, Canadian and Dutch troops who are moving into the south. The target date for that is July 31.
The expansion will take the numbers of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan to about 32,500 by July and August, the highest level since the Taliban were ousted.
The last phase of the expansion will see NATO taking command of U.S. forces now operating in the east, where Islamist insurgents are also active. No date has been set but it is expected late this year or early next.
NATO's move south should help the United States, stretched by the Iraq war, cut its troops in Afghanistan from 19,000 to 16,500 by around August...
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
Britain took command of NATO's Afghan peacekeeping force on Thursday as a tide of violence raised apprehension about the alliance's planned takeover of security duties across the country from U.S. forces...
"We aim to extend and deepen the areas in which the government of Afghanistan and the wider international community can safely and coherently operate in the interests of the people," the new British commander, Lieutenant General David Richards, said in a speech at a change-of-command ceremony...
ISAF now has about 9,000 troops in the relatively peaceful capital, the north and west.
Under its so-called phase three expansion, it will take over command of about 7,000 British, Canadian and Dutch troops who are moving into the south. The target date for that is July 31.
The expansion will take the numbers of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan to about 32,500 by July and August, the highest level since the Taliban were ousted.
The last phase of the expansion will see NATO taking command of U.S. forces now operating in the east, where Islamist insurgents are also active. No date has been set but it is expected late this year or early next.
NATO's move south should help the United States, stretched by the Iraq war, cut its troops in Afghanistan from 19,000 to 16,500 by around August...
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 9:58 a.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home