Merkel says wrong to set date to quit Afghanistan

BERLIN (Reuters) - It would be a mistake to set a concrete date for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan because it could encourage the Taliban, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Merkel reiterated that she backed his goal of having Afghan forces fully responsible for security by 2014.

"I think it would be wrong to name a concrete date for a withdrawal because .. we don't want to give the Taliban an excuse to go quiet and then launch a big attack," said Merkel.

"There are ambitious goals for Afghanistan to play a bigger role in its own security," she added.

Germany on Tuesday outlined a news strategy for its role in Afghanistan, saying it would send at least 500 extra soldiers there and nearly double its civilian aid to help create the conditions to start a withdrawal from next year.

Germany, whose deployment is NATO's third biggest contingent in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain, has come under pressure from some NATO allies to provide more forces.

Berlin will also offer a further 350 soldiers as a "flexible reserve" and contribute 50 million euros ($70 million) over five years to an international fund to reintegrate Afghan rebels.

Karzai, stopping in Berlin on his way to an international conference in London on Thursday, expressed confidence that Afghan forces would be able to gradually take on more responsibility for security.

"We want to be in a position to defend our land as soon as possible with Afghan forces," said Karzai, according to a German interpreter.

The mission in Afghanistan is deeply unpopular among Germans and the government has been careful to emphasize its role in training Afghan forces. German soldiers are stationed mainly in northern Afghanistan rather in the more dangerous South.

Source:reuters.com/

Merkel Says Germany Will Take Responsibility for Afghan Attack

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government will accept responsibility for a German-ordered air strike in Afghanistan and take action if evidence shows the military failed to follow NATO procedures.

The Sept. 4 air strike, which a North Atlantic Treaty Organization report says killed as many as 142 people, including civilians, is being reassessed by Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg in light of allegations that evidence of civilian deaths was withheld. His predecessor, Franz Josef Jung, resigned from his new post as Labor Minister last week amid a storm of protest.

Although Guttenberg last month said the attack near Kunduz had been justified, Merkel raised the possibility that the order for the strike may not have followed procedures set out by General Stanley McChrystal, the commander in Afghanistan of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

“We will of course draw the proper conclusions if not all rules were followed -- ISAF has rules and they have to be followed,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin after a meeting today with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The fallout from the air strike has occupied Merkel’s month-old coalition government as President Barack Obama is poised to announce a troop increase for Afghanistan and NATO partners prepare for a conference next month on their engagement. Merkel said her government will decide on any possible troop increases after the Jan. 28 conference in London.

Leaked Report

Any decision on more troops could be weighed down as the government faces the aftermath of the air strike in the week since a leaked report to Bild newspaper suggested the Defense Ministry under Jung wasn’t forthcoming. Jung was Merkel’s first minister to leave the Cabinet for policy reasons.

Guttenberg confirmed to German lawmakers last week that information had been withheld and announced the resignation of Germany’s top general, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and Deputy Defense Minister Peter Wichert. Guttenberg is sifting through the additional data from the reports.

The Kunduz strike was aimed at two immobilized tanker trucks ferrying fuel for what German commanders thought was a possible assault on German troops. A Sept. 6 Washington Post report, citing NATO officials at the scene of the strike, said the German commander relied on a single source, a possible violation of directives set out by McChrystal.

Germany’s contingent of as many as 4,500 troops in northern Afghanistan is the third-largest NATO force serving in the country. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said last week after meeting with Merkel that he was urging countries to follow Obama’s lead and commit more forces to Afghanistan.

Source:bloomberg.com