British Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to send some 500 troops to Afghanistan, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, in a boost to Washington”s efforts to secure more commitments from European allies.
Brown, who is expected to announce his decision on Wednesday, will set a number of conditions to deploying the extra troops, the Journal said.
The conditions include “a North Atlantic Treaty Organization strategy for the training of Afghan civil and military personnel, proper equipment and a new Afghan government being in place” after August elections were marred by allegations of fraud, the US newspaper said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Amid spiraling violence and waning public support for the eight-year war, US President Barack Obama has struggled to persuade even Washington”s closest allies to dispatch more troops to Afghanistan.
Britain has the second-largest NATO contingent in Afghanistan behind the United States and the additional forces would bring the British presence to around 9,500, the Journal said, the highest level since the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Georgia plans to send a battalion of 1,000 troops to the southern province of Helmand in 2010, while other countries like Macedonia are planning to send several dozen soldiers, the newspaper noted.
