Gordon Brown has arrived at the NATO summit with an offer of up to 1000 extra troops to go to Afghanistan on a temporary mission to ensure the August elections there go smoothly. This peace keeping role would be carried out in the South. Officials say the numbers sent would be “mid-late hundreds”. Britain already has over 8000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force – the...

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who withdrew his country's troops from Afghanistan, warns Nato that victory there is not possible.

Asked if there would be an announcement on Afghanistan troop numbers at the NATO Summit, the PMS said that we had not had a request from any of our NATO partners to put in additional troops. This was something that would be kept under review. Asked if the subject would come up when the Prime Minister met President Obama, the PMS said that they would discuss Afghanistan among other issues but the m...

Senior figures inside the Nato alliance are warning that the possible dismissal of General Stanley McChrystal as commander of the mission in Afghanistan, could destabilise the international effort at a difficult time

The head of the armed forces made it clear yesterday that he would oppose any request from Barack Obama to transfer British troops to Afghanistan from Iraq when they leave Basra next year. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of the defence staff, said that a reduction in the "operational tempo" was essential for British troops and it was time other Nato countries contributed more to the ...

As former Soviet President, Michael Gorbachev, warns that NATO cannot win in Afghanistan, the Washington Post has published a damning assessment by US military intelligence that shows that NATO are making no real progress in the war. It is a sign of NATO’s desperation that the press has been misleadingly reporting that Russian troops will now

Public opinion polls show that a big majority want British troops to leave Afghanistan. According to a recent opinion poll by ComRes, 64% think that British troops should leave. Yet their opinions barely register amongst our elected representatives. It is not hard to guess why the public think this. What are our troops doing there? What

Britain will propose creating a Nato rapid deployment force to defend mainland Europe while alliance troops serve further afield, in an effort to persuade member states to do more in Afghanistan.

Nato countries were urged today to send more troops to bolster military efforts in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Nato leaders struck a deal on a temporary increase in peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan to protect the country's streets for the presidential elections. A total of 10 countries will send forces in time for the run-up to the elections this summer. Germany was expected to confirm a previous announcement of extra troops in the north for the election period.