Britain Adds Troops In Afghanistan

Britain will send 1,400 more troops to Afghanistan in the next few months to counter a Taliban spring offensive. Other NATO allies are unwilling to commit more forces, and French and German patrols are so risk averse their helicopters may as well be "parked up in leading European airports,"  sniped UK Foreign Office minister Kim Howells.

Defense secretary Des Browne admitted the UK was "shouldering a greater share of the burden" than it would like. Just last week Tony Blair announced that British troops in Iraq would be drawn down by 1,600, and in Italy the government collapsed, due in large part to the unpopularity of keeping troops in Afghanistan. (More Afghanistan stories.)