German anti-terror troops will be stationed in Uzbekistan

11/05/2001| IslamWeb

BERLIN, (Islamweb & News Agencies)-Germany will station a force of commandos, tanks and other military units in Uzbekistan. as part of the US-led offensive against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.In an agreement with the US Pentagon, Germany will deploy Fuchs (Fox) armoured vehicles, which can detect nuclear, biological or chemical elements on the battlefield, special commando forces, evacuation forces, transport forces and naval forces, the Bild daily reported.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's cabinet approved Wednesday his offer to provide up to 3,900 German troops to assist the US-led offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, in a move showing Germany's military coming of age since World War II.
For the first time since that war, German troops could be making the highly symbolic step of being engaged in combat outside Europe, although Schroeder said Washington had not asked Germany "to participate either in air strikes or in putting in ground troops."
The cabinet specified the area where German troops may be called on to operate as, in addition to the NATO countries, the Arabian peninsula, the Middle East, Central Asia and northeast Africa, as well as the corresponding sea lanes, in a copy of the resolution made available in a press statement.
Schroeder had on Tuesday announced the initiative -- still subject to parliamentary approval -- following up on his promise of "unlimited solidarity" with Washington in the fight against terrorism in the wake of the attacks September 11 against the United States.
Uzbekistan is to date the only one of the former Soviet republics which border Afghanistan to have accepted US forces on its territory. Some 2,000 US troops are stationed at Khanabad in the south of the country, not far from the Afghan border.