PM's troop push to tackle Taliban
Updated on 13 November 2009
As American soldiers are wounded at a NATO compound in Kabul Gordon Brown says he wants other countries to commit five thousand more troops to fight the Taliban.
Gordon Brown is trying to persuade Britain's allies both inside and outside NATO to share the burden in Afghanistan and send around 5,000 troops to help fight the Taliban.
With President Obama still to announce his own decision on deployments a leading adviser said Mr Brown should either send more troops or signal a withdrawal.
Earlier today a car bomb exploded near a NATO convoy outside a U.S. military base in Kabul.
Nine soldiers were injured, as well as several civilian contractors and Afghan bystanders.
Talking to the Taliban?
Back in the UK, controversy over British policy on Afghanistan emerged.
Diplomats have long urged negotiations with the Taliban's foot soldiers and middle-ranking leaders, but a leaked document today revealed proposed Afghan President Karzai a quick, two-year scheme for negotiations.
It said insurgents must be shown "a combination of military pressure and clear signals that the option of an honourable exit from the fight exists."
The document also suggested even future talks with some insurgent leaders hiding in Pakistan - a group behind the violence against British troops in Helmand - known as the Quetta Shura.
Gordon Brown was quick to say "talking to the Taliban" was not a British backup strategy, unless they'd renounced violence first.
"That is not a plan B. The only plan that I think could ever work is the strengthening of the Afghanistan institutions of government.
"And if at that point, Afghans who are associated with the Taliban, who are not ideological extremists like many are, are prepared to renounce violence, are prepared to join the political process then that's is reintegration, that is reconciliation."
Mr Brown again today pushed NATO members to send a total of 5000 more troops, but the man whose decisions will really effect change in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama, began a tour of Asia today.
Of reinforcements Obama said:
"The decision will be made soon, it will be one that will be fully transparent so that the American people understand what we're doing and why we're doing it and what it will entail.
"It will also, I think, send a clear message that our goal here, ultimately has to be for the Afghan people to be able to be in a position to provide their own security and the United States cannot be engaged in an open-ended commitment."
Kabul bomb
Earlier today an unconfirmed number of American troops were injured following a car bombing outside Camp Phoenix in Kabul.
Abdul Jamil works at a petrol station across the street from the site.
"We were having breakfast when we heard a huge bang. All the glass was shattered."
The head of criminal investigations for Kabul police, Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, said a suicide bomber drove his car into a convoy of civilian vehicles just outside Camp Phoenix, a large U.S. military base near the Afghan capital's airport.
He said three to four foreign casualties had been taken from the scene by Western troops, but gave no details of the extent of their injuries.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Islamist militant group was responsible for the attack.
