Afstan: Germans and Danes

1) Germans:

Germany increases troop numbers to Afghanistan

The German cabinet on Wednesday agreed to deploy up to 300 further German soldiers to Afghanistan. They will assist airborne surveillance as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The AWACS planes will be stationed at the NATO base in Konya, Turkey

The German government said the mission would help "better coordinate" civilian and military air traffic. This would support the protection of the deployed soldiers and the Afghan civilian population.

Afghanistan's mountainous landscape hindered radar controls by ground troops, it said in a statement. Air traffic had also increased significantly in the past years.

"The reconnaissance aircraft were therefore urgently necessary to increase security," the statement said.

Germany will provide the troops for up to four Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) aircraft, whose home base is Geilenkirchen in western Germany. These will be sent when NATO begins its deployment of AWACS planes in Afghanistan. The aircraft will be stationed at the NATO base in Konya, Turkey.

The mandate is limited to December 13, 2009 [emphasis added]. The lower house of parliament still has to approve the mission and is expected to do so at the beginning of July.

NATO defense ministers approved the surveillance mission last Friday.

In total, Germany has about 3,500 troops in Afghanistan and there is a parliamentary mandate to send 4,500 as part of the NATO mission. But an additional mandate was required for the deployment of troops to assist the surveillance mission.

The AWACS planes will be unarmed. They can monitor a region of over 300,000 square kilometers from an elevation of 9,000 meters and can be refueled in the air.

It took the Germans almost a year to make the decision. See Update here for more on Germans.

2) Danes:

Danish troops die in Afghanistan

Three Danish soldiers have been killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, Denmark's military has said.

The soldiers were reported to have been leading a convoy when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb or mine.

Twenty-five Danish soldiers have died in Afghanistan since Denmark joined the US-led coalition in 2002.

Denmark has about 700 military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, mostly based in Helmand, a turbulent stronghold of Taliban militants.

Danish Foreign Minister Soren Gade told the country's TV2 news channel he had learnt of the soldiers' deaths "with great dismay".

The soldiers were taken by helicopter to the British Camp Bastion base but were declared dead on arrival...

From an earlier post:

...
By the way, the Danes, with very little notice (except inside NATO circles I guess), have been doing a bang-up job in Afstan; rather more than us on a per-capita basis--see end of this post:

Denmark 700 [emphasis added-- fully in combat--more at Update here]

Denmarks's population is one-fifth Canada's so 25 fatalities would equate to 150 Canadian deaths on a per capita basis. In fact we have suffered 142 so the sacrifice now seems roughly comparable. The Danes' 700 troops would equate to 3,500 Canadians; we have some 2,800.