§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what continuing role he plans for the armed forces in Afghanistan. [34041]
§ Mr. HoonWe have made our campaign objectives clear, including to bring Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda to justice and to ensure that the link between Afghanistan and terrorism is broken for good. The United Kingdom is also contributing to, and currently leading, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul.
So far, some 1,700 British troops have deployed to Kabul out of a total of about 3,500 troops from 15 countries. Although we plan to hand over command of the ISAF by the end of April and reduce the number of British troops involved, we will continue to contribute to the force. We will also continue to support the Coalition's efforts under Operation Enduring Freedom to deal with the surviving al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants in Afghanistan.