Germany mulls boosting troops in Afghanistan

Senior officials in Berlin have tried to prep skeptical Germans for increasing troops in Afghanistan by focusing mainly on reconstruction and training.

Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said on Sunday that he would unveil figures for the planned troop increase before a key international conference in London next week.

In an interview to be published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Guttenberg also proposed a change in German military strategy in Afghanistan.

According to the minister the German army would now focus more on training Afghan security forces.

However, he added that any troop increase would depend on the outcome of the NATO-led conference on the Afghan mission.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is set to represent Berlin at the Jan. 28 conference, has also refrained from ruling out the deployment of additional German troops in Afghanistan.

“I’ve never said that we would send no extra troops, for example to train Afghan forces,” he told the Bild am Sonntag weekly. “But I’m not giving a blank check.”

Westerwelle had earlier called for preliminary work to lay down the foundations of a withdrawal from Afghanistan during the country’s next four-year parliamentary term.

The latest comments follow a video podcast by Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday, reiterating Germany’s commitment to provide more intensive training for Afghan security forces.

Merkel also confirmed that Berlin would concentrate its military efforts in northern Afghanistan, where a controversial German-ordered airstrike killed as many as 142 people, including up to 70 civilians.

Germany currently has the third largest contingent in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan with some 4,500 troops. Defense officials say an additional 1,500 are under consideration.

According to opinion polls, most Germans oppose military involvement in the South Asian country which has cost the lives of 36 of their countrymen. but Berlin has been under pressure from the United States and NATO leadership to boost its presence there.