Browse Sections

Interactive

Popular Sections

Competition

Win Cirque Du Soleil tickets

We have five pairs of tickets to give away to see the stunning Cirque Du Soleil production Quidam at the MEN Arena on March 26 (matinee performance).

Click here for details

Weather

Clear

3 day forecast

News

Email Article

Submit Comments

3,300 taskforce for Afghanistan

27/ 1/2006

BRITAIN is to send a 3,300-strong military taskforce to a notorious stronghold of drugs barons and Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

The long-awaited deployment to Helmand will last three years at a cost of £1 billion to the taxpayer.

The British force will form part of a new, 9,000-strong Nato multi-national brigade taking over from the Americans.

Ministers gave the go-ahead even though they are still to receive confirmation from other key Nato allies - most notably the Netherlands - that they will send promised troops.

'Optimistic'

Defence Secretary John Reid told the Commons he was "optimistic" the Dutch would approve the deployment of a 1,400-strong force. Even if the Dutch pulled out, he said, Britain would not have to "plug the gap".

The other main contributor is Canada, which is sending 2,500 troops. Estonia, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand are considering sending smaller contingents.

Mr Reid acknowledged that Helmand was more dangerous than the north and west of Afghanistan where British forces have so far been operating, but he said Britain could not allow Afghanistan to fall back into the clutches of the Taliban and international terrorists. Mr Reid said Britons would not be there to "wage war".