German lawmakers on Saturday overwhelmingly approved sending up to 12-hundred troops for the international force protecting the new Afghan administration.
Opposition deputies joined Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition in passing the measure, despite renewing charges that it had failed to match its push for a bigger international role with a major boost in military spending. German Defence Minister Rudolph Scharping said the mission would stretch the German defence force to the limit because they are already committed to similar peace duties in the Balkans.
With the new interim Afghan leadership taking power in Kabul just hours earlier, 538 of the 581 lower-house members present voted in favour of the six-month deployment, giving the broad support Schroeder had sought. The UN Security Council authorised the British-led force on Thursday, paving the way for deploying 200 British Marines on the streets of Kabul by Saturday, when the 30-member interim government took power.
The force is to number between three-thousand to five-thousand troops from about half a dozen countries. It was unclear when the first German contingent might be sent.
Bureau Report