BERLIN: An opposition party has called for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan after three soldiers were killed in a suicide attack, but Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the international community was determined to make the difficult reconstruction process a success and that German soldiers would remain in the country.
"I heard of this underhanded attack with great shock," Merkel said. "This perfidious murder fills all of us with disgust."
She added that suicide bombings, which have recently spread to the northeastern province of Kunduz, a normally quiet region, were aimed at preventing reconstruction in Afghanistan.
The suicide bomber struck Saturday while German troops were patrolling on foot in the city of Kunduz. Ten other people also were killed. Last month, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a group of police officers who were training, killing 9 of them and wounding 25.
NATO and U.S. troops have also clashed with Taliban insurgents in the east of the country, near the border with Pakistan. According to the Afghan Army, more than 60 insurgents were killed Friday.
The U.S anti-terrorist mission in Afghanistan, Enduring Freedom, however, has been criticized by the Germany Defense Ministry, which said last week that heavy-handed tactics used by the U.S Army were alienating the local population.
Leaders of the opposition Left Party in Germany called for the withdrawal of the country's troops from Afghanistan. One of them, Gregor Gysi, said "the death of young men made no sense." The Left Party has consistently criticized the NATO mission, asserting that the alliance is not equipped to deal with such an ambitious peacekeeping effort.
But members of Merkel's coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats warned the opposition against using the weekend deaths as a justification for blocking the continuation of the German Army's mandate in Afghanistan. All German military or peacekeeping missions require the consent of the Bundestag, or lower house of Parliament.
Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, said that Germany would continue to fulfill its mission "to bring stability and security" to Afghanistan. Referring to the risk German soldiers faced, he said, "Unfortunately, there was no 100 percent protection against suicide bombers."
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, said the army's mission in Kunduz Province was crucial to bringing stability to that part of Afghanistan. It was the Social Democrat and Green government that agreed to dispatch German soldiers to Afghanistan in 2001. But with the Left Party now becoming the anti-war party, the Social Democrats are no longer united over continuing the mission in Afghanistan.
Germany has more than 3,200 troops based in the country, all of them serving under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Most, about 1,900, are based in Mazar-e-Sharif , in the north, and 430 are based in Kunduz as part of a provincial reconstruction team. The teams are intended to provide security to civilian aid agencies as well as extend the power of the government of President Hamid Karzai beyond the capital, Kabul.
The German government, however, has refused to send troops to the south-east of the country where NATO, working with U.S. forces, took command last year.
After a bitter debate in the Bundestag, Germany agreed to support the troops, made up mostly of contingents from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, with six Tornado reconnaissance aircraft.
Since 2001, when the multinational International Security Assistance Force was first deployed in Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces removed the Taliban regime, 578 soldiers have been killed, including 390 from the United States, 54 from Britain and Canada, 21 from Germany, 20 from Spain and 39 from the other 32 countries contributing forces in Afghanistan.
Source : www.iht.com
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