Major (Dr) Koh Choong Hou and 2nd Warrant Officer Mazlan Mohd Khalid (second from left) transferring a casualty flown in by helicopter to an ambulance in Oruzgan. Next month, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will send a 52-strong crew to Oruzgan for three months in what will be the largest single SAF deployment to Afghanistan. -- PHOTO: MINDEF
THE number of Singapore troops heading to war-torn Afghanistan will hit record levels over the next few months, as the Republic steps up its efforts to rebuild the war-torn country.
Next month, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will send a 52-strong crew to Oruzgan, a province south-west of the Afghan capital Kabul, for three months to operate a pilotless surveillance plane and to support coalition forces led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). It will be the largest single SAF deployment to Afghanistan.
In September, up to 10 servicemen will be despatched to Kabul or Kandahar to teach local security forces to fire artillery guns. In addition, the deployment of 21 servicemen who are manning a battlefield radar that can detect enemy artillery and rocket launches in Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital of Oruzgan, will be extended till the end of this year. The men had been scheduled to return last month.
In all, the SAF will deploy about 162 servicemen and women to Afghanistan this year, up from 97 last year. Though deployments in Bamiyan will be wound down later this year, the number is the highest since Singapore began helping with Afghan reconstruction efforts in 2007.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who gave details of the deployments in an interview, said the SAF had reassessed its peace support missions in Afghanistan as part of a 'significant increase in deployments' by Nato and the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) over the past year. The increased deployments - the so-called 'surge' - are part of a new strategy aimed at building up the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces, who are preparing to take over the responsibility of protecting their citizens, said Mr Teo, who is also the Defence Minister.
