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Jordanian Army Forces Enroute to Afghanistan, Others Expected Next Week
AMMAN, Dec. 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The first detachment of Jordanian military peacekeepers to serve in Afghanistan left Sunday for the war-torn nation today, a government official said.
The official did not say how many soldiers will form the contingent, but said the group will include soldiers from different Jordanian Armed Force units including Special Forces and the Army Medical Corps.
"This is the first detachment, the remaining teams will follow soon," the official, who asked not to be named, told
The Jordan Times.
Jordan is the only Arab state that agreed to send troops to serve in Afghanistan under a British-led command.
In addition to Jordan and Britain, the international force will group soldiers from France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Argentina.
On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council authorized an international force to assist the newly installed government in Afghanistan. The force, which will be based in Kabul, will not escort humanitarian convoys or be involved in internal disputes among Afghan factions outside Kabul.
The U.N.-brokered agreement signed by four Afghan factions in Bonn on Dec. 5 called for a multinational security force, and asked the Security Council to authorize it to give it international legitimacy - although it will not operate under a U.N. umbrella.
Last month, the Jordanian government issued a temporary law to amend the 1964 Armed Forces Law to legally cover the deployment of troops as part of peacekeeping forces abroad.
Government spokesman Minister of State Saleh Qallab had earlier said that the Jordanian detachment would establish a 50-bed field hospital in Mazer-e-Sharif to extend medical assistance to Afghani citizens.
Jordanian peacekeepers have served in Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone and Eritrea as part of U.N. missions.
An undisclosed number of elite special forces are accompanying more than 200 military doctors and medical staff to provide protection, an army source said.
Diplomats said Jordanian troops would be working closely with French troops, the main foreign forces stationed in the northern Afghan city.
Army sources said other flights might follow in the coming days, without elaborating.
Unlike more reluctant Arab and Muslim allies, Jordan threw its weight behind the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition and publicly-supported the bombing campaign to drive out Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.
Jordan has also accused Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda network and the main focus of U.S. operations in Afghanistan, of seeking to undermine the kingdom's stability.
But Jordan is worried the U.S. military campaign may extend to neighboring Iraq and destabilize an already turbulent region.
Jordan was the only Arab country to attend recent London meetings of representatives from 21 nations discussing the size and role of a U.N.-mandated international security force to help protect the new Afghan interim administration.
But officials, aware of the risks of antagonizing a public opinion strongly hostile to the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, are hesitant to contribute troops in any capacity other than a humanitarian one.
Some foreign troops are expected begin arriving in the Afghan capital next week, but the bulk of the multinational security force may take up to four weeks to deploy, a senior military source said on Sunday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Britain planned to send in an "enabling team" of up to 200 military personnel, including air traffic controllers, later this week to prepare for the deployment.
That team would be sited either at the Bagram airbase, 25 miles north of the capital, or preferably at Kabul's own airport to establish a bridgehead for troops arriving by air.
The source said the first troops of the U.N.-mandated force, initially to be led by Britain, could start flowing in next week but "it could take 20 to 30 days to get the bulk of the force in."
A small group of British Royal Marine commandos is already on the ground but left Kabul for Bagram on Saturday after assisting with security at the installation of the new interim government because it had nowhere in the capital to stay.
The precise role and size of the main force, which some estimates have said could be up to 5,000 strong, has yet to be finalized in talks with the new post-Taliban authorities.
"I think we have a very good agreement in principle," the source told a group of reporters. "All we need to do essentially is find the time to close the loopholes and we're pretty confident we can pull that off in the timeframe before people arrive."
Differences over the deployment have dogged discussions between Britain and other likely contributor nations and Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim, military chief of the Northern Alliance whose forces control Kabul.
The international force had initially been expected to guard government buildings and meetings, but is now likely to adopt a lower profile and patrol together with Afghan escorts.
"Having access to the city at large and engaging with the population at large...is a far more penetrative way of providing security than standing outside the Interior Ministry," the source said. "We don't want to find at the first hurdle that we misunderstand each other, so we're not rushing it for that very reason."
Apart from providing security and reassurance, the force is also expected to help with reconstruction of air traffic facilities, some roads and other infrastructure, the source added.
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