Britain is to send a further 1,400 troops to southern Afghanistan to help quell the continuing insurgency by Taliban militia, Defence Secretary Des Browne has told MPs.
The deployment, to take place over the summer, will bring the UK's forces in Afghanistan to 7,700 and Mr Browne said that the troops were committed to the mission until 2009.
In an oral statement to the House of Commons, Mr Browne made clear that Britain was having to send more servicemen and women to the troubled central Asian state because of the failure of Nato members like France and Germany to provide troops to fight on the frontline. |