U.S. commander in Afghanistan calls for more NATO troops

Above: A soldier with 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment pulls security as soldiers from his battalion search the mountains af Andar province, Afghanistan, for Taliban members and weapons in June. The soldiers were helicoptered in and extracted from a mountain top for the mission.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has reiterated a call for Germany and other NATO countries to contribute more soldiers to the battle against Taliban insurgents.

“We need troops that can be easily mobilized and we need helicopters,” Gen. Dan McNeil told Saturday’s edition of Die Welt, according to an advance extract of the newspaper.

He added that Germany, whose 3,000 troops in Afghanistan are confined to the relatively calm north of the country, could “be useful all over.”
Germany has long faced pressure to contribute more troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and to amend their mandate to allow deployment in the south where the Taliban insurgency is at its worst.

Britain earlier this month urged its NATO allies to commit more troops to Afghanistan to prevent a “potential nightmare” scenario.

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