U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama will ask Britain to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan if he wins U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, according to a report on the Sunday Telegraph.
Diplomats in Washington had warned British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to prepare for a request to dispatch elite units to reinforce the fight against Taliban when Britain pulls its remaining front-line forces out of Iraq next summer, the report said.
Britain will be asked to provide an extra 3,000 troops, according to a U.S. military intelligence official who was aware of discussions among Obama's foreign policy team, the paper said.
So far, about 8,000 British troops were currently deployed in Helmand, southern Afghanistan. However, British Ministry of Defense said this month that there were no immediate plans to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan beyond the extra 230 being sent on the current six month deployment boosting numbers to 8,000.
Source:Xinhua
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