led “war on terror” were able to see their relatives Tuesday in the first face-to-face visits at a US military detention center in Afghanistan, the Red Cross said. Relatives of the five, in all about 20 people, traveled to the largest US base in Afghanistan at Bagram, north of Kabul, for the meetings, said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which organised the visits. About 600 people are being held at the Bagram prison. The US military, which launched its “war on terror” in Afghanistan weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States, says they are suspected combattants. The Red Cross has since 2002 been passing messages between the detainees and their loved ones. In January 2008 it began video links between the prisoners and their relatives in Kabul and nearly 1,500 calls made over the past eight months. “But it is still not the real thing,” said Greg Muller, an ICRC delegate in Kabul. “It is essential to be touch with our loved ones... it is a very natural and human need.” The face-to-face visits have already been in place in Iraq. However, “It is a first for Bagram and for the US military operation in Afghanistan,” Muller said. He was not able to release details of the detainees for their privacy. The families were to have been able to visit the detainees for one hour each and the visits were expected to be repeated regularly, the ICRC said in a statement before the meetings. It said it would reimburse families' travel expenses between their homes and Kabul, and will also provide transport between the capital and Bagram. The ICRC quoted Mohammada Jan, whose brother-in-law Safiullah is being held at Bagram, as saying the prospect of seeing her relative directly will be more moving than any phone conversation. “The first time I saw Safiullah on the screen, I just cried. I was so happy and sad at the same time. But this time it will be different.” “When we visit him in Bagram, we want to make sure that he is not upset about seeing us, but draws strength from the experience,” she said. Not enough troops The United States will not have enough forces available to meet a request for more troops from NATO's top commander in Afghanistan until next spring at the earliest, the US defense chief said on Tuesday. “Without changing deployment patterns, without changing length of tours, we do not have the forces to send three additional brigade combat teams to Afghanistan at this point,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “My view is that those forces will become available probably during the spring and summer of 2009,” he said. Under plans announced by President George W. Bush this month, the United States will deploy a Marine force of nearly 2,000 troops in November and an Army brigade of around 4,000 troops in January.
