Topic: France Weighs Shifting Forces In Afghanistan

New York Times
February 27, 2008
PARIS (Reuters) — France may send hundreds of ground troops to eastern Afghanistan, where NATO-led forces are fighting insurgents backed by Al Qaeda, Le Monde reported Tuesday.
It said the move would be part of a new Afghan policy being worked out by President Nicolas Sarkozy and his advisers.
A French presidential spokesman declined to confirm or deny the newspaper report. “The president has not made a decision,” he said. “We are in discussion with our partners, inside NATO but not exclusively.”
France has about 1,900 soldiers under NATO’s Afghan command, most of them based in relatively calm Kabul, and Le Monde said the fresh troops would be deployed outside the capital.
“Their destination would be zones of potentially fierce fighting, preferably the eastern region of Afghanistan close to the tribal areas of Pakistan,” it said.
Early last year, France withdrew 200 special forces soldiers who had been operating under United States command in Afghanistan, but Le Monde said France was now expected to sanction the return of the special forces. About 50 remained to train Afghan commandos.
Under the plan, the deployment of French soldiers to the east would free United States forces there to help Canadian troops fighting insurgents in the south.
The United States is leading a campaign for what it calls a fairer sharing of the burden in the fight against Taliban insurgents. Britain, Canada, Poland and others have backed the American demand.
Germany, Italy and Spain have troops in relatively secure areas and have refused to send troops to southern and eastern provinces where the militants are most active.
The NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said last week the alliance’s future rested on its mission in Afghanistan.
Since his election in May, Mr. Sarkozy has sent more combat aircraft to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and intensified French efforts to train the Afghan Army.