Afghan chief in plea for troops to rout Taliban

Afghanistan needs more British troops to help quell a resurgent Taliban, strengthened by the mistaken and premature exit of Natoled combat forces in 2014, one of the country’s leaders has said.

Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan government’s chief executive, said that Britain and other Nato allies needed to offer additional personnel to train and advise the 300,000-strong Afghan security and defence forces instead of leaving the United States to do most of the work.

‘‘It is necessary yes,’’ Dr Abdullah, 57, said in an interview yesterday while on a trip to London when asked about the prospect of extra UK troops almost 17 years after British and US forces first deployed to the country.

revealed last month that Theresa May is considering almost doubling Britain’s presence in Afghanistan, with the deployment of around an extra 400 soldiers to Kabul. The prime minister is expected to make an announcement on the move at a Nato summit next month.

Dr Abdullah – who met Boris Johnson yesterday after a meeting with May was cancelled amid domestic Brexit turmoil – said that any additional British troops could release US forces already stationed in the capital to focus on other parts of the country.

‘‘I think it is important, every bit is important,’’ Dr Abdullah said.

‘‘The Afghan forces can shoulder the responsibility but they need support.’’

The former Afghan foreign minister had harsh words about a decision made by David Cameron, when prime minister, and Barack Obama, as US president, to declare in 2012 that all Nato-led combat forces would withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

He said that his country’s security and economy had suffered because the Taliban had used the two-year window leading up to the exit of the majority of some 150,000 US, British and other Nato-led combat forces to build up its strength, while Afghan businesses held back on investment decisions because of the uncertainty.

‘‘It was a mistake,’’ he said about the announcement of the withdrawal date.

Dr Abdullah, who is in a powersharing administration with Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, said that the security situation had not been sufficiently stable to justify the exit.

Britain ended what at its high point had been a 10,000-strong mission in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, to great fanfare in October 2014.

‘‘The conditions weren’t right in 2014,’’ Dr Abdullah said.

He also signalled a shift in Afghan government policy over the plight of Afghan interpreters who face death threats from the Taliban because they worked with British forces. –