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Britain's military operation costs in Iraq, Afghanistan likely to double |
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08:50, March 11, 2008 |
Britain's costs of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are likely to almost double this year, a committee of Lower House warned on Monday.
The Commons defense committee said in a statement that operational costs for this financial year were forecast to reach 3.297 billion pounds (some 6.5 billion U.S. dollars) this year, a 94 percent increase over last year when total spending on the two conflicts was 1.698 billion pounds.
The cost of spending on Iraq is forecast to increase by 72 percent to 1.648 billion pounds despite ongoing falls in troop numbers and that of the Afghan conflict would rise 122 percent to 1.649 billion pounds this year, according to the committee.
The committee said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) needed to provide more information on how the additional cash was being spent.
Committee Chairman James Arbuthnot said: "Few people will object to the investment being made in better facilities and equipment for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, this estimate represents a lot of public money. The MoD needs to provide better information about what it is all being spent on."
The MoD has said it needs an additional 2.192 billion pounds for the current financial year compared with its previous estimate made at the end of 2007.
There are 3,000 British troops in Afghanistan and around 5000 in Iraq.
Source:Xinhua
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