Germany reluctant to deploy troops in south Afghanistan

KABUL—Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday Germany would continue to focus its military efforts in relatively calm northern Afghanistan but added it could help out in the insurgency-hit south if needed.
Merkel was in Afghanistan on a surprise one-day visit that comes amid calls for Germany’s 3,000 troops here to play a greater role in NATO-led operations in the south, where other nations are struggling against Taliban rebels.
“Germany has taken over responsibility in the north of Afghanistan and I think the most important (thing) is to pursue the efforts we have begun,” Merkel told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai.
The country is also contributing Tornado planes to carry out reconnaissance work in Afghanistan, she said. And “whenever troops will need help in the south, we will of course provide help for the south,” Merkel said, without making it clear what degree of assistance she referred to.
“But I strongly believe that we should stick to our concept that has been worked out in order not to weaken our forces in the north,” she said. Germany has been criticised for keeping the bulk of its forces in the north while countries such as Britain, Canada and the United States face some of the most intense fighting in decades in the south.
Southern Afghanistan sees the worst of an insurgency led by the hardline Taliban movement that was driven from government in late 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Violence has grown in the north but the area is free from the daily violence gripping the south and east.
Germany’s role in Afghanistan is controversial at home, with a survey last month finding that only 29 percent of Germans supported the mission here. The German parliament nonetheless last month extended Berlin’s military engagement in Afghanistan for a year, passing a new mandate that sets a ceiling of 3,500 troops.
Most of Germany’s troops are part of the 37-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helping the fledgling Afghan security forces battle the insurgency. The country also has about 200 elite soldiers with a separate US-led coalition that focuses largely on rounding up Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other militants.
Karzai thanked Merkel for her country’s support for his fragile country and said Germany was one of Afghanistan’s most trusted friends. “Especially in the six years in which Afghanistan has started a new life, Germany has helped us with its soldiers and with its people’s hard work,” he told reporters.
Merkel also met with the UN special representative, Tom Koenigs, and the commander of ISAF, General Dan McNeill, as well as the head of the German forces in Afghanistan, General Dieter Warnecke. She was due to meet some of the 1,400 German troops in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif before leaving Afghanistan.
The insurgency has grown in strength year on year, despite the presence of more than 50,000 international troops under NATO or US command, with military officials reporting increasing numbers of foreign fighters on the battlefield, including from Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
Around 5,000 people have been killed so far this year, most of them rebels, according to a tally based on official statements.
More than 190 foreign soldiers have also lost their lives this year. A NATO soldier was killed in a bomb strike in the south on Saturday, while a coalition force soldier and an Afghan trooper were killed in the same area on Friday.
The nationalities of the foreign soldiers have not been released. The militants are apparently still in control of two districts in the west of the country that they have recently captured, forcing out Afghan police and administration officials.—Agencies