over 3,000 troops and six reconnaissance jets in Afghanistan amid mounting public opposition to the deployment. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, which favors continuing the deployment for another year, has 446 seats in the 613-seat Bundestag, which opened its Friday session with debate on the issue.
But the government faces dissension in Social Democratic ranks where some feel the Tornado reconnaissance jets are a sign of an improper emphasis on military force over civil reconstruction.
Merkel has argued forcefully for keeping troops there, saying Germany must not "leave Afghanistan in the hands of the terrorists."
The head of the Social Democrats' parliamentary faction, former Defense Minister Peter Struck, said the mission had already been a success and the situation in the north had become "much more stable."
At the same time he warned the mission could remain in place for another decade.
"It can't go as quickly as we would like it to," Struck told ZDF's morning show.
The all-weather jets from the Luftwaffe's Tactical Reconnaissance Wing 51 "Immelmann," supported by 280 personnel, are based near Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and can provide faster, farther-ranging photographic information to assist security forces on the ground than can unpiloted drones, according to the German air force.
Most of the 2,800 German ground troops are in the quieter north of the country as part of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. Germany has resisted any suggestion they should take part in the heavier fighting in the south of the country.
Recent public opinion polls indicate a majority of Germans want the troops to come home after attacks on German troops and kidnappings of German citizens there.
A vote will be held later this fall on a third mandate on Germany's participation in the anti-terror Operation Enduring Freedom, which in Germany's case has consisted of anti-terrorist ship patrols off the Horn of Africa.
