December 29, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 18, 1428

WARSAW: Poland will boost its forces in Afghanistan by 400 troops to a total of 1,600 after the assassination of Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said on Friday.

“The destabilisation of the situation in Pakistan and the danger that this instability will expand in the region and to Afghanistan has forced us to reinforce our military contingent,” he told the commercial TVN24 news channel.

Klich said the additional troops would be deployed in April or May. The minister also said that in the future Poland wanted to assume responsibility for security operations in part of Afghanistan’s Paktika province, bordering Pakistan.

Around 180 of the extra soldiers will be tasked with maintaining eight helicopters Poland has vowed to send to Afghanistan.

Poland currently has 1,200 soldiers deployed in the 36,000-strong United Nations-mandated and Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.—AFP