| It has been confirmed on Monday that between 120 and 160 Dutch service personnel — primarily members of the air force — will start operations on 1 September if the Lower House of Parliament, Tweede Kamer, gives the green light. The Dutch are expected to be stationed in the Afghan province Baghlan. In total, an extra 3,500 Nato troops from various countries — to be spread between five teams — are being deployed in the central Asian country as Nato expands its security and reconstruction mission in Afghanistan. The main task of the troops will be to help secure the Afghan elections, scheduled to occur in September this year. About 6,500 Nato troops are presently involved in security operations in the capital Kabul and the city of Kunduz, alongside US troops involved in operation Enduring Freedom. The Nato alliance had promised to expand its area of operations to the north and west of Afghanistan, but it has proven difficult in recent months to gather sufficient troop numbers. The UK, Germany, Norway, Finland, Romania and Denmark will also be involved in the expansion of operations, which will see the Nato alliance involved in security operations across 190,000sq km of Afghanistan’s total area of 647,500sq km. |