Colombia Mulls Sending
Troops to Afghanistan
BOGOTA - The Colombian
government studies the
possibility of sending
troops to Afghanistan to
join the Spanish
military units located
in that Asian country,
said a high Colombian
military source
Thursday.
General Freddy Padilla,
Commander of the
military forces, told
Colombian Radio Caracol
the Colombian soldiers
would form part of the
units of the North
Atlantic Treaty
Organization under the
Spanish flag.
Padilla said that a
commission of seven high
officials from Colombia,
presided by General
Gustavo Matamoros, Head
of Operations of the
Army Command, went to
Afghanistan to analyze
the possibilities.
He explained this is the
third Colombian
commission travelling to
Afghanistan, and that
the Colombian troops
might participate in
military engineering
works and possibly
fighting
drug-trafficking.
Padilla did not mention
number of soldiers but
if the mission is
approved, it would start
in 2009.
According to versions
from the Spanish press
published here,
Colombians might
intervene in combats and
could be 100 soldiers
reinforcing the Spanish
troops in the northwest
of Afghanistan.
Colombia keeps 500 men
supporting the UN peace
mission in Sinai, since
1981. It was one of the
few countries supporting
the US invasion to Iraq
to overthrow the
government of Saddam
Hussein.
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