British Troops Unlikely to Deploy in Large Numbers in Afghan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, November 24, 2001

British Troops Unlikely to Deploy in Large Numbers in Afghan

Senior British defence sources said that UK troops are unlikely to deploy in large numbers in Afghanistan, BBC reported on Friday.

Senior British defence sources said that UK troops are unlikely to deploy in large numbers in Afghanistan, BBC reported on Friday.

It was not certain whether any further British ground troops would be needed beyond a small number of Royal Marines and Special Forces already deployed in the war-torn country, officials of Ministry of Defence (MOD) said.

And it is thought that even if further deployment of troops was undertaken it would be nowhere near the scale of the 6,000 members of the forces currently on 48 hour stand-by.

"Almost certainly nothing like that number would deploy, even if a political decision was made to deploy," one source said.

International Development Secretary Clare Short said that unless troops were sent in to secure supply routes there would be an humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

But MOD officials insisted on Friday that troops were not needed to get supplies through. "There is not necessarily a role for significant numbers of the military forces to enable to protect aid," one official was quoted as saying.

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