No Iraq to Afghanistan troop transfer: British military chief

THE STANS

Suspected Taliban attack on NATO convoy kills woman in Pakistan
Missiles fired by suspected Taliban militants targeting a NATO supply convoy killed a woman and wounded her two children in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, an official said. The missiles missed the convoy and hit a house in Pakistan's Khyber tribal district, on the main supply route into Afghanistan, where a NATO-led force is battling a Taliban insurgency. "Militants fired three missiles on Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces. Two landed in open space and one hit a house, killing a woman and injuring two children," said local government official Bakhtiar Mohmand. The 60 vehicles in the convoy continued their journey after the attack, Mohmand told AFP. Militants have stepped up their attacks on NATO and US supply vehicles in recent weeks, targeting terminals outside the northwestern city of Peshawar, where the Taliban is active. The latest incident came a day after militants in southwestern Baluchistan province, which also borders Afghanistan, attacked a NATO fuel tanker.

by Staff Writers
Basra, Iraq (AFP) Dec 17, 2008
The head of Britain's armed forces insisted Wednesday that the pullout of 4,100 troops in Iraq next year must not result in those numbers being sent to Afghanistan.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup also said he did not expect US president-elect Barack Obama to ask Britain to contribute further troops in Afghanistan as it was already taking a "very, very large" share of the burden.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spent Wednesday in Iraq, where he said that British forces would wrap up their mission in the country by the end of May, with the troops out by the end of July.

Stirrup said the pullout would permit Britain to boost its capacity in Afghanistan -- where 8,000 British troops are on operation -- but insisted the military could not sustain such levels of deployment over the long term.

"It frees up forces which could allow us to do more in Afghanistan if required," the chief of the defence staff told reporters at the British military base outside Basra, southern Iraq.

"But we cannot just have a one-for-one transfer. The net result must be a reduction in our overall operation campaign.

"We have been doing for some time more than we are structurally resourced for over the long term.

"At some stage we have to get the tempo back down to a sustainable level, and that's what we will do in the course of 2009."

Britain, which has the second-highest troop numbers in Afghanistan after the United States, has long since been trying to get other NATO allies to do more in the war-torn country.

But Stirrup said Obama, who takes office in January, was unlikely to ask Britain to up its military commitment to Afghanistan.

"I don't think he'd be looking to us to take a significantly greater share of the burden because we are already taking a very, very large share of the burden," Stirrup said.

"We all want to see more burden sharing, but we want to see countries sharing the burden in ways that they are able to do and in areas that they are able to contribute most effectively."

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THE STANS

Russian general says US plans bases in Central Asia: report

Moscow (AFP) Dec 16, 2008
Russia's military chief accused the United States on Tuesday of planning to set up new military bases in ex-Soviet Central Asia, an oil-rich region that Moscow views as its backyard, Interfax reported.

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