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Germany to boost Afghan troops
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Germany is to send more troops to Afghanistan when it takes joint command of the international peacekeepers there next month, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has said. Fischer made a one-day visit on Tuesday to the Afghan capital of Kabul for talks with president Hamid Karzai. "In the follow-up to the decision [on Germany taking over command] we have to increase the number of our troops," Fischer told reporters. Germany and the Netherlands are due to take joint command of the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul when Turkey steps down in December. Germany already has more than 1,000 soldiers in ISAF, the largest contingent after Turkey. While Fischer did not support proposals to extend ISAF's sphere of operations beyond the capital, he did push for the rebuilding of the Afghan army and police force. He said the world must not repeat the mistakes of the past by forgetting about Afghanistan. "We should prevent Afghanistan from becoming forgotten again by the world," he said. "If any other event or incidents occur in the world, Afghanistan must not be affected by it." The international community needed to continue to help Afghanistan rebuild after 23 years of civil war and occupation, he said. "The international campaign against terrorism has not finished and the reconstruction of Afghanistan is significant in this campaign. We should pay attention to this issue." Fischer's arrival in Kabul came hours after five rockets landed near an ISAF brigade post on a road where a German base is also located in the east of the city. There were no casualties reported in the attack and no one has claimed responsibility. Reuters contributed to this report.
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