Ancram: Answers needed on Afghan troops
Shadow Defence Secretary Michael Ancram has written to the Government demanding answers on newspaper reports of a big forthcoming troop deployment to Afghanistan.
The Mirror has claimed that the UK is preparing to ship 5,500 troops out to Afghanistan as part of a new push to find Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Prime Minister Tony Blair announced last June that the UK would deploy the Headquarters Group of the ARRC (Allied Rapid Reaction Corp) to Afghanistan sometime in 2006.
It has been suggested that the British are now offering 5,500 troops – in response to requests for help from the Americans.
It has also been suggested that the same number of troops could be pulled out of Iraq – reducing the British presence by two thirds.
Writing to Defence Secretary John Reid, Mr Ancram said that clarification was needed as to how such a deployment would affect operations in Iraq.
Mr Ancram, said: “I would be grateful if you could clarify several issues:
“When was a decision on deploying additional troops to Afghanistan made? What is the exact nature of the deployment? What is the composition of the troops designated for the deployment? How many reservists will be deployed? When do you expect the first contingent to be deployed?
“Has the U. S. approached any other of our allies? Have any other Coalition partners indicated that they may want to commit additional troops to Afghanistan?”
Mr Ancram added: “Finally, are you satisfied that Iraq’s own security forces will be able to take on a greater burden of the struggle against the insurgency there? Are you confident that Iraq will have calmed down enough by the spring next year to allow resources to be switched to the new campaign?”
Earlier, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesperson said that talk of how many troops would be deployed was “purely speculative”.
She added that no decision had been made at all about the numbers of troops involved.
