Turkey Sending Elite Units To Train Northern Alliance
ANKARA, Oct 31 (News Agencies) - Turkey has agreed to send a top-notch military unit to northern Afghanistan to train fighters of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in response to a request from the United States, its NATO ally, NTV television reported Wednesday.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that Washington passed on the request to a Turkish general, who is currently in the United States to help coordinate operations in Afghanistan.
Turkey's Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who held an emergency meeting of his security advisers late Tuesday, has decided to comply with the U.S. request.
The report could not be immediately confirmed.
The proposed team will be made up of 40 to 50 elite soldiers whose mission will be limited to training Northern Alliance troops. The Turkish troops will not take part in combat against the ruling Taliban militia, the report said.
The Turkish parliament passed a resolution on October 10 allowing Turkish forces to be sent abroad and foreign troops to be based in Turkey as part of the U.S.-led crackdown on Afghanistan.
Turkey, the only Muslim country in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has opened its air space to U.S. aircraft and shared intelligence since the beginning of the crisis, which was sparked by the deadly September 11 attacks on the United States.
Ankara supports the U.S. aim of ousting the Taliban and has agreed to host a meeting of opposition leaders to map out plans for a government to replace the movement.
"Turkey has an important task in providing political protection to Afghanistan in the era that will follow that of the Taliban," said ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Speaking by phone from Tajikistan, Rabbani told NTV said that he opposed sending a U.N. force to Afghanistan. However, he did suggest that Kabul under a new regime could "call on friendly countries", in a reference to Turkey, to provide peacekeepers.
Turkey backs Turkish-speaking ethnic minorities in the north of Afghanistan, in particular Uzbeks led by General Rashid Dostam of the Northern Alliance. Turkmens, Tajiks and Aymaks comprise more than 30% of the overall Afghan population.
