Afghan troop levels
October 7, 2009
During the war in Afghanistan in 2001 that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, the US military tried to destroy Taliban positions through massive air bombardments. The war on the ground was conducted mainly by the so called Northern Alliance, a loose union of warlords with combat experience from the Afghan civil war. The Northern Alliance received American and British military support.
The military conflict with the Taliban ended officially - at least for a while - with the takeover of Afghanistan's capital Kabul by Northern Alliance troops on Nov. 12. On Dec. 5, 2001 the Petersberg Agreement on Afghanistan was signed in Bonn, Germany and Hamid Karzai was named head of the interim government. In addition, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was established by the UN Security Council with a mandate to establish peace and security in Afghanistan. All 28 NATO member states participated in the ISAF mission.
More than 1,000 soldiers killed
NATO took over the ISAF mission with its 5,500 troops in August 2003. By October 2009 the troop size had surged more than tenfold to 66,000 soldier from 42 countries. Since 2001 more than 1,000 NATO soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, more than half of them Americans. 35 German troops have been killed.
In addition to ISAF there are 35,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, who participate in the US-lead anti-terror mission Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). That brings the number of the combined foreign troops to over 100,000, with two thirds of them being US forces. The Afghan army currently consists of 90,000 soldiers, the number of Taliban fighters is estimated at around 20,000.
Since the newly elected US President Barack Obama announced a troop increase in early 2009, the number of US soldiers has gone up once more by 15,000. By the end of the year there are scheduled to be 68,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan. Britain has contributed the second-largest military contingent, Germany comes in third place.
More than 4000 German troops
Originally the German parliament allowed only 1,200 soldiers to be sent to Afghanistan. However, parliament subsequently approved additional deployments increasing troop levels in Afghanistan to 3,500 in 2007. Last October, Germany's parliament signed off on additional deployment of up to 1,000 soldiers by Dec. 13, 2009, however that level has yet to be reached.
In addition to the permanent deployments to Afghanistan, Germany and many other countries increased their contingents temporarily for the Afghan presidential elections in August. Including those troops, there are currently 4,200 German soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. Since July 2009 there is also an additional contingent of 300 German soldiers who have been deployed to monitor Afghan air space aboard the Tornado-AWACS surveillance planes. However, the German government has emphasized that AWACS surveillance would not be used to support US-led OEF-operations, in which Germany no longer participates.
Author: Jochen Vock/(pvh)
Editor: Michael Knigge/Rob Mudge