1,150 Int'l Peacekeeping Soldiers Arrive in Kabul

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 12, 2002

1,150 Int'l Peacekeeping Soldiers Arrive in Kabul

Major Guy Richardson, the British spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said on Friday that 1,150 ISAF soldiers have arrived in Afghan capital Kabul.

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Major Guy Richardson, the British spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said on Friday that 1,150 ISAF soldiers have arrived in Afghan capital Kabul.

Among them, 100 soldiers will be deployed at the Kabul International Airport, said the spokesman, adding that 200 more will arrive there later.

So far, most of the ISAF troops arrived in Kabul by landing at the Bagram air base, which lies about 50 kilometers to the north of Kabul. The peacekeeping forces and the Afghan interim government are working together to repair the Kabul International Airport destroyed in the U.S.-led bombing.

But the airport will not open until January 14, said the British military spokesman.

Responding to a question about the possibility of deploying peacekeeping forces outside the Afghan capital, Richardson said it depends on the Afghan interim government and the international community.

The international peacekeeping force, led by Britain for the first three months of its six-month term, is expected to number some 4,500 troops by the end of this month.

But interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said last Tuesday he might ask foreign governments to provide more.

"The delegations that I receive ... keep asking for a larger number of international security forces and to be deployed in other provinces, other cities of Afghanistan," he told the BBC.

"As need arises, we might ask for that," he said.

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