London, November 16
Up to 100 British commandos have flown into Bagram airbase north of the Afghan capital Kabul, defence sources have said.

The sources said the Royal Marines were checking out the base’s facilities and paving the way for humanitarian operations in an area which is now in the hands of the opposition Northern Alliance.

“They did not have to fight their way in,’’ said one defence source.

The British soldiers were drawn from forces retained in the area after Operation Swift Sword, a major military exercise staged in Oman.

Prime Minister Tony Blair had put British troops on standby to be rushed to Afghanistan to secure airports and aid routes after Northern Alliance troops swept the Taliban from great swathes of the country.

International Development Minister Clare Short stressed on Thursday the need to move swiftly.

“The crucial next step in terms of the humanitarian effort is securing order,’’ Short told reporters a day after Britain put thousands of soldiers on 48-hour notice for duty in the region.

France said on Thursday it would send troops to northern Afghanistan “in a matter of days’’ as part of an international aid and reconstruction mission to the country.

“We are working on a French contribution, probably with other coalition countries, to create a security base that would re-establish infrastructures and normal living conditions in the northern zone,’’ Defence Minister Alain Richard told reporters.

Britain is a key ally of the USA in its war on the Taliban, launched in response to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, blamed on Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

Mr Blair said this week he could not rule out that British troops could play a “frontline offensive’’ role in Afghanistan.

TOKYO: Japan will send upto 1,500 troops, a flotilla of warships and a small squadron of planes overseas within days to support the US-led war in Afghanistan under a strategy that won final approval today from the Prime Minister’s top advisers.