Germany has turned down a request from Nato to send military transport helicopters to strife-torn southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said on Wednesday. "After studying a request from SACEUR (The Supreme Allied Commander Europe), we decided that we could not comply with this request," the spokesman told a press conference.
He said Germany had already deployed six military helicopters in northern Afghanistan, where about 3,000 German troops are serving in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which along with US-led coalition troops is trying to support the Kabul government. Sending helicopters to the south would have prevented those in the north from operating effectively, the spokesman said. Nato made the request for the helicopters on July 30 to Germany, France, Greece, Spain and Turkey.