Europe may send 5,000 troops to Afghanistan

November 14, 2009|Robert H. Reid, Associated Press

KABUL - Europe may send 5,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan, Britain’s prime minister said yesterday - affirming support for the NATO mission as the Obama administration nears a decision on increasing American troop levels.

The announcement came as the Taliban struck again in the capital. A suicide car bomber blasted a US convoy near an American military base in Kabul, injuring nine American soldiers and 10 contract security guards.

Three Afghans were killed in the attack - the biggest in Kabul in the last two weeks.

Brown said the NATO strategy must be to encourage a greater role for Afghan forces so that international troops “can start coming home.’’

His remarks were made a day after he met with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

The NATO chief said that other allied nations have privately pledged more help, but Rasmussen stopped short of saying that countries would send more troops.

“We need our other NATO allies to help,’’ Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC in a London interview.