This, from todays The Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
4,000 British troops for Afghanistan
BY PA NEWS
Royal Marine Commandos were today put on "immediate" stand-by for action in Afghanistan. 200 men, from 40 Commando, Royal Marines, will remain in the Gulf region on board HMS Fearless when other troops return from exercise in Oman, Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces Minister told the House of Commons.
They will form part of a "large and flexible" force of more than 4,000 British servicemen and a taskforce of warships deployed to join the battle against Osama bin Laden and the Taleban.
The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, a submarine armed with Tomahawk missiles, the destroyer HMS Southampton and frigate HMS Cornwall are also remaining in the area, the minister told MPs.
The force will be supported by seven Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and four aircraft, consisting of Nimrod maritime patrol and Hercules transport planes, which were also taking part in Exercise Saif Sareea 2, he said.
"This powerful force totals some 4,200 personnel in theatre," he told MPs. The commandos will operate from HMS Fearless when other troops return from Oman.
The marines, based in Taunton, Somerset, are part of 3 Commando Brigade, the Army’s elite mountain and winter warfare specialists, and they have been training intensively in the Omani desert with more than 20,000 British troops on Exercise Saif Sareea II.
They have been waiting for days to find out if they were to join Operation Veritas - the UK part of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.
The remainder of 40 Commando, around 400 men, are returning to their Taunton base but will be held at "high readiness" to return to the region if needed.
Mr Ingram said he would not provide operational details, but there was speculation the marines could be involved in more sustained attacks than the lightning strikes so far mounted by US special forces.
The commandos could be used to provide "force protection" for small, highly mobile SAS units sent into the country on search-and-destroy missions behind the lines of the ruling Taleban.
Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, travelled to Oman last night to brief commanders personally on how Britain would help hunt down Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.
The enormity of their task was underlined by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who last night said tracking down bin Laden in the mountainous Afghan terrain was like trying to find a "needle in a haystack".
The vast majority of troops on Saif Sareea will return to Britain when the exercise concludes this weekend.
The move comes amid growing signs of frustration among alliance commanders that US warplanes have not hit the Taleban frontline positions harder, enabling them to mount an offensive against the capital, Kabul.
Englishman
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