German Army Chief: More Troops for Afghanistan

BERLIN: The German army's chief of staff wants more troops in northern Afghanistan following a string of recent attacks on its soldiers and Afghan helpers, he said in a magazine interview published April 13.

Wolfgang Schneiderhan told the Focus weekly that the 3,500-strong mission's operations in northern Afghanistan, an area seen as peaceful compared to the restive south, were stretching it to the limit.

"That takes away flexibility for me to react quickly to any worsening in the situation. I will argue this when the extension of the mandate comes up for discussion in the autumn," Schneiderhan said.

According to the online edition of Spiegel magazine, Schneiderhan went further in a recent meeting with a parliamentary defense committee, telling ministers that recent attacks were evidence of an "alarming development."

Schneiderhan told the committee in a meeting behind closed doors that the situation in the north was "not quiet and not stable" and that German troops were being faced with "new challenges" as a result of an increase in violence, Spiegel reported.

German troops have been attacked three times in recent weeks. No German soldiers were killed but other attacks have killed seven Afghans working as helpers for reconstruction teams, Spiegel said in an article published April 13.

Since 2002, 26 German troops have been killed in Afghanistan. The soldiers, whose number hovers in reality around the 3,200 mark due to troop fluctuations, are part of NATO's 47,000-strong International Security and Assistance Force.

Berlin has resisted pressure from NATO allies to deploy its forces in the south of the country where U.S., British and Canadian soldiers are bearing the brunt of a tenacious Taliban insurgency.

A bomb attack on a German armored vehicle in late March seriously injured two German troops, in late February rockets were fired at their barracks in Kunduz, and last week there was a suicide attack on a German patrol.