Albania pledges more troops for Afghanistan

03/12/2009

TIRANA, Albania -- Albania has pledged to deploy 85 more commandos to Afghanistan, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said on Wednesday (December 2nd), after US President Barack Obama presented a new Afghan strategy, which would send another 30,000 US troops by the summer. Albania already has about 250 soldiers in Afghanistan. Washington is also urging Turkey to send more troops.

In other news Wednesday, Berisha promised to accept more former Guantanamo detainees. He discussed it with Washington's special envoy on the issue, Ambassador Daniel Fried, and with US Ambassador to Tirana John Withers. Berisha refused, however, to accept members of China's ethnic Uighur Muslim minority as prisoners, to avoid complicating ties with Beijing. Albania accepted eight Guantanamo prisoners in 2006. (CNN Turk, Anadolu news agency, Alsat, VoA, BBC, AP, Telegrafi, AFP - 02/12/09)