More on USA/British troops deployment..Hazards and problems.
What Lakhdar Brahimi (UN envoy) says tells the story. Any foreign troops on the ground, in force, could start a bloodbath in a snapping of the fingers. It's going to take patience and lots of communication to make any headway on this matter. Meanwhile seven (yep it's now 7) million civilians are getting thinner and hungrier, out of a total population of 26 million.
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No firm decision has yet been made on a new deployment to Afghanistan, but more than 5,000 troops are now on two days notice to move.
The units concerned include 45 Commando Royal Marines; 2 Battalion, the Parachute Regiment; RAF air transport, support helicopters, engineers, logistics teams and explosive ordnance disposal experts
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On Tuesday, the UN's special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, said an "all-Afghan" force was more desirable than foreign peacekeepers, but admitted such a force was unlikely to emerge in the short term. He also said this was not a role for "blue helmets" - traditional UN peacekeepers.
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British and American troops would be able to deploy quickly to areas where fighting has stopped but the security situation remains fragile.
A total of 1,000 soldiers of the US 10th Mountain Brigade have been on standby in neighbouring Uzbekistan for some weeks.
It is thought they will soon move to secure positions in northern Afghanistan, possibly the airbase at Maza-e Sherif, which fell to Northern Alliance forces at the end of last week.
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news.bbc.co.uk |
