Forty-seven Czech specialists arrived in the capital of Kabul Nov. 25 and will take control of the city's international airport starting Dec. 1, the Defense Ministry said.

They will join NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The Czech unit is in charge of 500 soldiers and specialists from 20 NATO countries and Afghanistan. The contingent includes specialists in air traffic, air control and logistics.

The Czechs are expected to hand control of the airport to another member of the ISAF in April.

These are crucial times for the ISAF mission.

Afghanistan to some has become the forgotten war as the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq spins ever further out of control. Afghanistan has seen a renewal of violence in the past six months, with Taliban insurgents fighting to regain control of former strongholds.

Though called a peacekeeping mission, the ISAF increasingly has been conducting a ground war since its troops moved into the south of Afghanistan this summer. Afghanistan marks the furthest afield NATO has gone on a military campaign, and the first real ground test for its forces. The 1999 NATO campaign in Kosovo was largely an air campaign.

Close to 50 NATO soldiers have died this year.

The relevance of NATO, a relic of the Cold War, is continuously in question, and member countries have balked at committing troops freely to such a far-flung mission as Afghanistan. The ISAF is still composed primarily of 11,000 U.S. soldiers.

NATO commanders have been asking for 2,200 more to effectively continue the ISAF mission. Reserves have been slow in coming. The Czech Republic has a total of 150 troops serving as part of the ISAF and could commit another 190 next year.