British troops 'unlikely' to go to Kandahar

[unhappycamper]

British troops on IED training at Camp Bastion, Helmand, Afghanistan.


British troops 'unlikely' to go to Kandahar
Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 June 2010 20.03 BST

The presence of British troops in Helmand was a "national security imperative" and it was highly unlikely they would be deployed elsewhere in Afghanistan, defence secretary Liam Fox, said today.

Fox virtually ruled out the prospect of UK forces moving out of the province and into neighbouring Kandahar when Canada withdraws its troops from there next year. The idea has been canvassed by some senior British, US and Nato commanders.

After his first meeting with the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, Fox said that both men "remain hugely committed to success in Afghanistan". It was "highly unlikely" that the 9,500 troops in Helmand would be redeployed, he said. "It is certainly not something that we will be proposing."

Fox said he had discussed the possibility of redeployment when he recently met the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, in Kabul.

"If General McChrystal had wished such a thing, I am sure he would have asked us what our view was in terms of moving the British forces in that way," he said. "It is highly unlikely that we would want to accede to that particular change.

[howard112211]

1. I think I wouldn't like to go into Kandahar myself, at this point.