WARSAW - Poland will not send its 1,200 troops in Afghanistan to fight Taleban insurgents in the countryÂ’s volatile south, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said in an interview published Friday.| Disappointing. |
In December, Poland pledged to raise its ISAF troop contribution to 1,600 this year. Warsaw had already increased the size of its contingent early last year from around 200 to 1,200. The Polish contingent is currently spread across five different regions of eastern Afghanistan, but from the autumn will be concentrated in the eastern Paktika province, Klich said.
ISAF commander, US General Dan McNeill, confirmed the plan to concentrate the Polish forces in one area. He told Dziennik that ISAF and Warsaw would be able to reach an understanding on the PolesÂ’ role.
Elite Polish troops, who are not part of the ISAF contingent, are deployed in the south alongside the Canadians, but Warsaw does not comment on their operations.