Afghanistan | 06.05.2007
Six German Soldiers to Deploy to Southern Afghanistan DW
Germany currently has about 3,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan
After refusing to station 19 German troops to Afghanistan's volatile south, the defense ministry confirmed six soldiers would be sent to the region for up to a month, but said they would not be part of combat missions.
Germany has come under pressure from its NATO allies to transfer some of its 3,000 troops from the relatively safe north to the south to support their mostly US, British and Canadian allies in fighting Taliban-led insurgents.
But the troops' very presence in Afghanistan has caused unease in Germany six decades after the end of World War II and a parliamentary mandate limits their activities to areas such as logistics and first aid.
Three of the soldiers now being sent will work to win over local support for the deployment of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The others will assess conditions in the south for a possible deployment of an Afghan battalion currently in the relatively safe north of the country and decide what equipment they will need.
