February 02, 2007	Friday	Muharram 13, 1428

LONDON, Feb 1: Britain is to send additional 800 troops to southern Afghanistan, where they are bracing for a spring offensive by Taliban insurgents, Defence Secretary Des Browne said on Thursday.

The increase will bring its force in the south, where Britain has spearheaded a Nato-led offensive against insurgents, to some 5,800 by late summer.

But overall Britain’s deployment in the country will rise by only 300, as London will withdraw 500 troops from Kabul when it hands over command of the International Security Assistance Force to the United States this weekend.

The extra troops will be heading for the Helmand province, where the bulk of British forces in Afghanistan are based, and which has in recent months seen the worst of a Taliban-led insurgency which claimed over 4,000 lives last year.

It is also the area where the bulk of the 46 British soldiers killed during the war have died.

While recent months have been relatively calm compared with last year, military chiefs fear that Taliban fighters are preparing for a massive spring offensive, as snows melt allowing them to renew attacks on Nato targets.

The government is turning to reservists to supply a large portion of the necessary manpower – it is issuing some 600 call-out notices in order to fill around 420 positions in Afghanistan.

The announcement comes following wrangling within Nato about some countries’ willingness to commit troops to areas experiencing high levels of violence.

Former British secretary-general Lord Peter Carrington last month accused France and Germany of “not pulling their weight”.—AFP