KABUL (AFP) — The German defence minister said in Kabul Wednesday that calls in Germany for troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan because of recent attacks would only heighten risks for the soldiers.
Franz Josef Jung was in the capital a day after visiting German troops in the northern town of Kunduz, where one was killed and three wounded in an attack claimed by the insurgent Taliban movement last week.
The killing has fuelled debate in Germany about whether the country's roughly 3,500 soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) should be pulled out of the country.
But such talk would only encourage the militants, who are carrying out the attacks to force international troops to leave, Jung told reporters after talks with ISAF commander US General David D. McKiernan.
"Those who push such discussions in Germany, in my opinion, only increase the danger for our soldiers," said Jung, who met President Hamid Karzai earlier in the day.
Any troop pull-out would mean that "those who for example carry out attacks on the German army in order to influence such a debate would reach their goals."
Such discussions are "absolutely counterproductive", the minister said.
He acknowledged however "a worsening security situation" in Afghanistan.
"But I think it is essential to keep to our objective, which is to allow the government of Afghanistan to take charge of responsibility for security; in other words to continue the training of the armed forces and the training of the police," he said.
Germany has one of the biggest contingents in the nearly 40-nation ISAF, most of them in northern Afghanistan.
But its involvement is sensitive in Germany, where there is strong opposition for historical reasons to the country taking up a combat role.
Asked if ISAF soldiers were involved in a "war" in Afghanistan, McKiernan said: "It is a war against the insurgents and a war for the future of Afghanistan.
"We are fighting, and that requires soldiers and airmen to be able to defend themselves and it requires them to be able to use combat skills," he said.
Germany has lost about 30 troops in Afghanistan since 2002, the year after the Taliban regime was removed in a US-led invasion.
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