BERLIN, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Germany's defense minister says he would not rule out sending troops to southern Afghanistan, days before Berlin decides on troop deployment to the country.
On Wednesday, the German Cabinet is to decide whether to deploy six Tornado reconnaissance planes, plus 250 to 500 troops to southern Afghanistan after such a request came from NATO.
"We need better reconnaissance to counter terrorist attacks in a timely manner," Germany's Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
Germany, Jung added, "would naturally help, even in other regions" of Afghanistan, an obvious reference to controversial troop deployment to the volatile south.
Germany has some 2,750 soldiers stationed with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, but they are confined to stay in relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan. Germany in the past has come under fire from NATO officials for keeping their troops in the north while the death toll in the south is rising.
Observers say the German government is eager to prove to its allies that it wants to provide additional aid in Afghanistan. The deployment of reconnaissance planes is seen as a relatively safe way to do so, at least when it comes to human casualties.
While the Cabinet is expected to sign off on the mission, Germany's lawmakers in Parliament have already voiced their concerns over the Tornado deployment, fearing a higher German death toll and a shift from civil reconstruction efforts to increasingly military missions.
