U.S. Strikes Back
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British troops expected by Saturday
By BARRY RENFREW
Associated Press Writer
12/18/01
LONDON — A peacekeeping vanguard of up to 200 British marines is expected to be deployed on the streets of Kabul by Saturday, when the new interim Afghan government assumes power, the Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday.
The troops will come from a British contingent currently securing Bagram air base 25 miles north of the capital and from the landing ship HMS Fearless, which is on standby in the Arabian Gulf.
Ultimately between 3,000 and 5,000 peacekeepers are to be deployed to Afghanistan under the terms of the Bonn agreement on Afghanistan's future. Britain is to lead the multinational force.
However, four days before an interim government takes power in Afghanistan, the United Nations has yet to approve the deployment.
One reason for the delay is that the Security Council has gotten mixed signals from the Afghans about whether they agree to the peacekeepers using force if need be, the U.N. ambassador for Britain, Jeremy Greenstock, said Tuesday.
Britain and other countries contributing troops insist that a Security Council resolution must be authorized under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which sanctions the use of force to deal with threats to peace.
``Nobody wants to go into Afghanistan except under Chapter VII as I see it,'' Greenstock said.
Another key issue still under discussion is the length of time the force will remain in Afghanistan, with the British pushing for three months and the United States pressing for a longer stay, Western diplomats said.
Still, Britain expects the Security Council to approve deployment in time to allow a weekend landing by troops.
``In all likelihood they will be there by Dec. 22,'' said a Ministry of Defense spokesman.
Britain is expected to provide 1,500 troops, the bulk of which would arrive after Saturday, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said earlier Tuesday.
Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo-Figueroa said his country would provide a battalion of 700 combat troops and listed Germany, the Netherlands and Italy as other major European contributors. Among the NATO allies, France and Turkey are also expected to provide significant forces.
Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said Tuesday that the government was considering committing troops but had not decided whether to contribute.
Argentina, Canada, Jordan, Malaysia and New Zealand have also expressed willingness to take part.
British officials were working with allies at NATO in Brussels on Tuesday to pull together the force. British officials said they had sufficient offers of combat troops, but were still looking for specialist units such as communications, transport, engineering and bomb disposal.
Britain has been trying to work out how the force will operate, and how it will interact with the U.S.-led force already on the ground fighting remnants of the Taliban and hunting for Osama bin Laden, the lead suspect in the Sept. 11 U.S. terrorist attacks.
Some British special forces are involved in combat operations with U.S. special forces in Afghanistan. Those operations will remain separate.
Hoon told BBC radio that ``any British forces deployed will have robust rules of engagement to ensure their own safety.''
He said there would be close liaison with U.S. forces, and dismissed suggestions that the British force could get bogged down in an open-ended commitment.
``As far as time is concerned, can I say that our expectation is that this will be a time limited operation ... we are talking a small number of months rather than an open-ended commitment,'' he said.
A group of retired senior military commanders warned Monday that Britain's armed forces are already overstretched with other commitments and the Afghan deployment could weaken the country's defenses.
``We must avoid falling into the trap of becoming so mesmerized by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida that other key parts of defense are neglected and underfunded and we are found unprepared when confronted by a new threat,'' said Gen. Lord Guthrie, a former chief of staff of the military.
``For we live in dangerous times and we can be absolutely sure that new threats will appear,'' he added.