UK: Browne denies bid to switch troops to Afghanistan

British defence secretary Des Browne today denied that senior military officers have urged the Government to withdraw troops from Iraq to concentrate on the campaign in Afghanistan.

Mr Browne said there was “no division” between ministers and commanders and dismissed reports today that there were internal debates among military chiefs over the deployment of 7,500 soldiers in Iraq.

A report in today’s Guardian newspaper claimed that officers wanted to see an “early and significant cut” in the deployment in the south of the country.

It quoted an unidentified defence source as saying: “There is a group within the Ministry of Defence pushing hard to get troops out of Iraq to get more into Afghanistan."

Mr Browne told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “It is not true that senior military officers have been pressing the Government to withdraw British troops from Iraq, that’s not the case.

“My view, and military commanders share this view, is that we have a vital job to do in Iraq. We have a responsibility to the Iraqi people.”

He added: “There is no division between us and military commanders about what we are doing at the moment and we are doing a very good job there and we ought to be enormously proud of our troops there.”

Mr Browne was speaking from Slovenia following an announcement that 12,000 US troops involved in Operation Enduring Freedom – an offensive mission separate to the Nato deployment – would come under Nato control.

The US decision to place more than half its forces in Afghanistan under British Nato commander Lieutenant General David Richards gives the alliance a total of 32,000 soldiers.

Currently Britain has nearly 5,000 troops in Afghanistan – including 3,600 in Helmand – with 900 more on the way.

Yesterday Mr Browne called on Nato to “step up to the plate” and contribute more to the military campaign.

Earlier Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the BBC that the mission in Afghanistan could not be allowed to fail.

He said: “Do please realise the consequences of Nato not being there, Nato failing and Afghanistan becoming the black hole, the hotbed for terrorism training and human rights abuses.

“The consequences of such a situation would be felt in London...because it (Afghanistan) would again be a nation which was exporting terrorism.

“We have to stay the course, we will stay the course and we will prevail.”