Brits getting Wobbly on A'Stan

[Kirkhill]

British deployment detailed

Around 3,300 British Forces Will Deploy to the South of Afghanistan This Year
 
 
(Source: UK Ministry of Defence; issued Jan. 26, 2006)
 
 
In a statement on 26 January 2006, Mr Reid said that the dangers of military action in Afghanistan paled in comparison to the risks Britain would face if the international community allowed the country to become a sanctuary for international terrorism again, and that abandoning Afghanistan was simply not an option. 

As part of NATO's expansion into Southern Afghanistan, a task force based around units from 16 Air Assault Brigade will deploy to Helmand Province. 

Their task will be to provide a secure and stable environment in which the reconstruction of Helmand can take place. 

Addressing the House of Commons on 26 January 2006, Mr Reid said: 

"Whatever the difficulties and risks of this deployment – and I do not hide them from the house or the country – those risks are nothing compared to the dangers to our country and our people of allowing Afghanistan to fall back into the hands of the Taliban and the terrorists. We will not allow that. And the Afghan people will not allow that." 

Next month an advance party of an additional 850 personnel drawn from 39 Regiment, Royal Engineers and 42 Commando Royal Marines will deploy with three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to Helmand to build an encampment prior to the arrival of the main deployment. 

As announced in June 2004, the UK will also be deploying the Headquarters Group of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, to take command of the NATO International Security Assistance Force for nine months from May. 

Mr Reid added: 

"Last September, I saw for myself the real hope that the international community has brought to a new generation of Afghans. The hope that at last the Afghan people can rebuild their country. The hope that Afghanistan can take its rightful place as a country where men and women alike can live in peace and freedom with real hope for a better future. 

"We cannot risk losing these achievements. We cannot risk Afghanistan once again becoming a sanctuary for terrorists – we have seen where that leads, be it in New York or London. We cannot ignore the opportunity to bring security to a fragile but vital part of the world. And we cannot go on accepting Afghan opium being the source of ninety per cent of the heroin on our streets. For all these reasons, it is in our interests, as the UK, and as a responsible member of the international community, to act." 


SELECTED BACKGROUND NOTES: 

The Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team will work with UK officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development to deliver a tailored package of political, developmental and military assistance. Specifically, its mission will be to help train the Afghan security forces, to facilitate reconstruction, and to provide security, thereby supporting the extension of the Afghan Government’s authority across the province. 

The Helmand Task Force will comprise elements of the Headquarters of Colchester-based 16 Air Assault Brigade, and airborne infantry battlegroup. Based initially around the Third Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, it will incorporate a force of eight Apache Attack Helicopters, provided by 9 Regiment, Army Air Corps, the first time we have deployed this impressive new capability on an operation. 9 Regiment will also supply four Lynx Light Utility Helicopters while 27 Squadron, Royal Air Force, will provide a detachment of six Chinook Support Helicopters. 

Other major units and capabilities include Scimitar and Spartan armoured vehicles from the Household Cavalry Regiment, a battery of 105mm Light Guns from 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, a battery of Desert Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicles from 32 Regiment, Royal Artillery, 13 Air Assault Regiment and 29 Regiment of the Royal Logistics Corps, 7 Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and 16 Close Support Medical Regiment. We shall also deploy four additional Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. 

We aim for these deployments to be fully operational by July this year. The total size of our commitment will fluctuate over the next few months but will peak, briefly, at around 5,700 before reducing to under 4,700 as the engineers building the camps in Helmand, and, on current plans, our Harrier GR7 detachment, withdraw in July and June respectively. Our forces will then comprise those needed to command the ISAF, some three hundred troops engaged in support and training tasks in Kabul, and the Helmand Task Force. Predominantly, they will be Regular troops. There will be, however, a small number of Reservists, most drawn either from the Royal Regiment of Volunteers or the Fourth Battalion, the Parachute Regiment. 

-ends- 

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?session=dae.17178889.1138375508.Q9o7VMOa9dUAAFVPRvY&modele=jdc_34

 

[Spr.Earl]

Talking with a mate the other day,his Unit is going over and it's Terry Unit.

 

[big bad john]

The Netherlands finally decided also.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/02/02/20060202-dutchvote.html

Dutch legislators OK sending troops to Afghanistan
Last Updated Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:42:52 EST
CBC News
The Dutch parliament voted Thursday to follow through on its commitment to send up to 1,400 soldiers to troubled southern Afghanistan.


INDEPTH: Afghanistan

The lengthy parliamentary debate took place in front of standing-room only crowds, as legislators argued the merits of the Afghan mission to Uruzgan.

It is a turbulent region where U.S. troops and Afghan government forces have come under repeated attacks from insurgents. In January, Canadian diploma Glyn Berry was killed and three Canadian soldiers were injured in a bombing attack.

Dutch critics said any attempt to rebuild the area is doomed to failure, while others said the Dutch have an obligation to NATO. Public opinion in the Netherlands is evenly divided.

"The mission has been called a reconstruction mission, but in reality it is a fighting mission," Farah Karimi of the Green Left party said Thursday. "If the Americans were unable to do any reconstruction, why would we be more successful?"

Observers say the spectre of Srebrenica lurked over the debate. Eleven years ago, 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serbs while Dutch peacekeepers, under-equipped and with no clear mission, did nothing.

Defenders of the Afghan mission say it won't happen this time.

Despite groups of vocal protesters gathered outside, lawmakers ultimately agreed the country's troops would join Canadian and British forces.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's government was able to approve the troop deployment after its main rival, the opposition Labour party, earlier this week decided to support the proposal.

Defence Minister Henk Kamp said an advance team would likely leave for Uruzgan on March 1, while the main contingent would be deployed Aug. 1. That's two months later than originally scheduled.

NATO previously said it would go ahead with the mission even if parliament in The Hague vetoed Dutch involvement.

 

[big bad john]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C02%5C03%5Cstory_3-2-2006_pg4_14


Danish govt okays more Afghan troops

* Afghan FM hopes Netherlands will approve sending more troops

COPENHAGEN/ PRAGUE: Denmark’s parliament on Thursday decided to send 200 more troops to the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan.

The troops are to leave in May or June and will be based in Afghanistan’s troubled south, where NATO will take over peacekeeping from US forces.

The parliament approved the move by 107 votes in favour to 10 against, with 62 members absent. NATO-member Denmark currently has 160 soldiers based in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Meanwhile, the upper chamber of Czech parliament on Thursday approved the deployment of troops to Afghanistan.

Of the 68 lawmakers present in the 81-seat Senate, 65 voted in favour of the move, one was against and two abstained.

If approved by the parliament’s lower chamber, up to 120 troops will join the US-led operation against Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

The lower chamber of the parliament is scheduled to discuss the deployment on Friday.

The Czech Republic currently has 61 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led peacekeeping force.

Meanwhile, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said he was hopeful the Dutch parliament would approve the dispatch of 1,400 additional troops to Afghanistan’s restive south.

The parliament was due to decide on Thursday, after weeks of wrangling, on the deployment which is considered key to NATO’s efforts to expand peacekeeping and reconstruction work in the volatile southern part of the country.

“I hope the Dutch parliament will approve the decision of Dutch government to send troops to Afghanistan. I am optimistic,” Abdullah told reporters hours after returning from a key conference in London on Afghanistan’s future.

The NATO expansion would however go ahead even without the Dutch approval, with the gap filled by troops from other NATO members, the minister said. “If the Dutch parliament approves the decision, it is good. But if not, they will be replaced by other NATO troops from other NATO members,” he said.

The Dutch forces are expected to go to Uruzgan province, the site of several attacks against foreign troops. NATO plans to increase its force to some 18,500 troops later this year to be able to move into volatile southern regions.

The deployment in the insurgency-hit south is seen as a key step in the international community’s efforts to stabilise and rebuild Afghanistan, extending the central government’s authority across the war-shattered country.

Abdullah said the London conference this week at which Afghanistan’s international donors pledged 10.5 billion dollars for the country and endorsed its five-year development plan showed the “spirit of true partnership between Afghanistan and the international community”.

“It was a demonstration of support for our shared aim to build a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan,” he said.

Destitute and war-shattered Afghanistan is trying to rebuild after decades of war which ended with the removal in late 2001 of the hardline Taliban regime, remnants of which have launched a guerrilla-like insurgency that sees regular deadly attacks. agencies