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Leak outlines plan for Afghan combat pullout
By Europe correspondent Emma Alberici
Britain has confirmed that it will withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014, after a Sunday newspaper published what it said was a leaked document with details of the plan.
A document, published by the Independent on Sunday, says Coalition combat forces will hand control to the Afghan army by 2014, with a scaled draw down of troops set to begin in a matter of months.
The leaked document is the first formal confirmation of any deadline for the exit of coalition troops.
It is reportedly a communique meant to be released by Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai at the International Conference on Afghanistan to be held in Kabul tomorrow.
The Independent says an agreed version of the final communique marked "not for circulation" was sent to senior diplomats by the UN special representative in Afghanistan.
It reads: "The international community expressed its support for the president of Afghanistan's objective that the Afghan national security forces should lead and conduct military operations in all provinces by the end of 2014."
The Kabul meeting will be attended by United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, US secretary of state Hilary Clinton, UK foreign secretary William Hague, and foreign ministers from 70 other countries.
Formal confirmation
Speaking to the BBC, Britain's defence secretary Liam Fox confirmed that British combat troops will have been withdrawn from Afghanistan within five years.
"A leaked draft document for a potential communique of a conference that hasn't yet happened is, I think, really quite a leap," he said.
"The prime minister has made it very clear that we don't want to have combat troops in substantial numbers in Afghanistan by 2015.
"He has made that explicitly clear. That does not say that we will not have troops there in a role assisting the training of the Afghan army."
The new strategy came as the Britain's international development minister outlined a plan to divert hundreds of millions of dollars of aid away from other countries to help rebuild Afghanistan.
He said a 40 per cent increase in aid to Afghanistan should help the country take care of itself and so hasten the withdrawal of foreign forces.
But aid agencies in Kabul question how effective such an allocation of money can be for a country so wracked by corruption.
Paul Valentin, the international director of Christian Aid, says most of that aid is unlikely to make it into the hands of those who need it most.
"If you look at it historically, I am afraid that a lot of aid in the past decade has also been diverted into supporting warlords, supporting particular factions, just to keep them happy," he said.
"If British development aid is used for that purpose, that would be very bad. I don't believe that that is what the government wants, but I think the danger is always there."
Britain has the second largest number of troops in Afghanistan.
Four of them were killed in separate incidents this weekend, and 322 UK servicemen have died in the country since 2001.
Leak outlines plan for Afghan combat pullout
By Europe correspondent Emma Alberici
Britain has confirmed that it will withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014, after a Sunday newspaper published what it said was a leaked document with details of the plan.
A document, published by the Independent on Sunday, says Coalition combat forces will hand control to the Afghan army by 2014, with a scaled draw down of troops set to begin in a matter of months.
The leaked document is the first formal confirmation of any deadline for the exit of coalition troops.
It is reportedly a communique meant to be released by Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai at the International Conference on Afghanistan to be held in Kabul tomorrow.
The Independent says an agreed version of the final communique marked "not for circulation" was sent to senior diplomats by the UN special representative in Afghanistan.
It reads: "The international community expressed its support for the president of Afghanistan's objective that the Afghan national security forces should lead and conduct military operations in all provinces by the end of 2014."
The Kabul meeting will be attended by United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, US secretary of state Hilary Clinton, UK foreign secretary William Hague, and foreign ministers from 70 other countries.
Formal confirmation
Speaking to the BBC, Britain's defence secretary Liam Fox confirmed that British combat troops will have been withdrawn from Afghanistan within five years.
"A leaked draft document for a potential communique of a conference that hasn't yet happened is, I think, really quite a leap," he said.
"The prime minister has made it very clear that we don't want to have combat troops in substantial numbers in Afghanistan by 2015.
"He has made that explicitly clear. That does not say that we will not have troops there in a role assisting the training of the Afghan army."
The new strategy came as the Britain's international development minister outlined a plan to divert hundreds of millions of dollars of aid away from other countries to help rebuild Afghanistan.
He said a 40 per cent increase in aid to Afghanistan should help the country take care of itself and so hasten the withdrawal of foreign forces.
But aid agencies in Kabul question how effective such an allocation of money can be for a country so wracked by corruption.
Paul Valentin, the international director of Christian Aid, says most of that aid is unlikely to make it into the hands of those who need it most.
"If you look at it historically, I am afraid that a lot of aid in the past decade has also been diverted into supporting warlords, supporting particular factions, just to keep them happy," he said.
"If British development aid is used for that purpose, that would be very bad. I don't believe that that is what the government wants, but I think the danger is always there."
Britain has the second largest number of troops in Afghanistan.
Four of them were killed in separate incidents this weekend, and 322 UK servicemen have died in the country since 2001.
