Singabloodypore

SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singapore is sending two military construction engineering teams to Afghanistan, the defence ministry said Monday.

In the tiny city-state's latest military contribution to the area, 12 team members will be deployed in two groups over about six months in central Bamiyan province, the ministry said.

They are to supervise construction of a regional health training centre and will be part of the New Zealand Defence Force provincial reconstruction team, it said.

"This deployment is part of Singapore's overall contribution to the international humanitarian assistance and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan," the defence ministry said in a statement.

Singapore last year sent a five-man medical team to Bamiyan, and a Singapore Air Force refuelling aircraft left last month for the Gulf where it will support multi-national forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ministry said earlier.

Singapore, which US President George W. Bush visited in 2006, has been an unwavering US ally.

Talk about newspeak - international humanitarian assistance - there was me thinking it was a war.