LONDON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A top British military commander says troops withdrawn from Iraq shouldn't be redeployed to Afghanistan to enable a troop surge there.
Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, chief of Britain's defense staff, told a BBC interviewer Monday that the country's armed forces have been stretched to the limit in recent years and the Iraq troops needed time to recover, the Times of London reported.
Britain is set to pull out most of its 4,100 Iraq troops by May. But Stirrup, referring to calls that Britain respond to growing Taliban strength in Afghanistan by transferring troops there from Iraq, told the BBC, "It cannot be just a one-for-one transfer from Iraq to Afghanistan."
Stirrup said during the interview that while several thousand more British troops will be needed in Afghanistan, up to about 8,200, other nations must make contributions as well, the Times reported.
"We're the second-largest troop-contributing nation," he said. "We expect others to take up their share of the burden."
