German parliament approves deployments for one more year

By Donald McFarlane

December 01, 2007

Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, voted on 15 November 2007 to keep its military forces involved in Operation 'Enduring Freedom' and missions in Sudan and the Mediterranean for one more year.

In the Bundestag, 414 out of 574 members voted in favour of continuing current operations.

According to NATO, Germany has approximately 3,155 troops in Afghanistan, making it the third largest contributor of forces there after the United States and UK.

Regional Command (RC) North has approximately 3,300 soldiers and is commanded by Brigadier General Dieter Warnecke, who oversees six Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).

German forces are currently headquartered at a forward support base in Mazar-e-Sharif and have PRTs located in Feyzabad and Konduz. Sweden has one PRT located at Mazar-e-Sharif, a Norwegian PRT is located in Meymana and a Hungarian PRT is located in Pol-e-Khomri.

The bulk of Germany's forces in Afghanistan are made up of support personnel, including engineers, signals and military police. Though there is one infantry battalion in Afghanistan and an undisclosed number of special forces.

Germany also has: several Tornado ECR reconnaissance aircraft in Afghanistan, along with a number of C-160 Transall transport aircraft and a mix of helicopters, including Chinooks; a Type 122 Bremen-class frigate stationed in the Mediterranean as part of the related NATO-led Operation 'Active Endeavour'; and roughly 20 troops stationed in Djibouti at a multinational base providing support to UN operations in Darfur.