British troops have been deployed to secure Bagrum airfield north of Kabul.

An advance party of around 100 Royal Marines heralds the arrival of a much larger force drawn from the 4,000 UK troops currently on standby. The make-up of a multinational stability force for the country has yet to be agreed, with the British government acting quickly to counter risks of a drift to tribal warlordism and Balkanisation in a war shattered Afghanistan.

The official role of stabilisation forces following the collapse of the Taliban is to guarantee the humanitarian relief effort but the rapid deployment of Western forces indicates high levels of concern that the Northern Alliance could repeat its massacres of 1992 and resist a UN-led interim administration.