BRITAIN

PM Brown announces additional 500 troops for Afghanistan

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the deployment of 500 additional UK troops to Afghanistan in an address to parliamentarians Wednesday.

Issued on: 14/10/2009 - 05:00

Text by: NEWS WIRES

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Rueters - Britain has agreed in principle to raise troop numbers in Afghanistan to 9,500, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday, an increase of 500.

Worsening violence in the eight-year, U.S.-led war against the Taliban has led to calls for a change of strategy including the option of sending more troops to bolster security.

Brown said Britain would send the additional troops as long as the Afghan government sped up the training of its own forces and the correct military equipment was available.

“I’ve agreed in principle to a new British force level of 9,500 which will be put into effect once these conditions are met,” Brown told parliament.

Britain’s force is the second biggest contribution to the foreign mission. There are more than 100,000 Western troops in the warzone most of them American.