The role of British troops in Helmand, the province in southern Afghanistan where they have been deployed for four years, is coming under unprecedented scrutiny as US commanders draw up plans for what they hope will be a final and conclusive push against Taliban-led insurgents.

Contingency plans include the possible wholesale withdrawal of the 9,500 British troops from Helmand to neighbouring Kandahar, the Taliban heartland, where US-led commanders are finalising plans for the largest counterinsurgency and “hearts and minds” operation since 2001.Canada, which has provided the bulk of Nato troops in Kandahar, says it will withdraw all its forces there next year.  Read more... (804 words, 1 image, estimated 3:13 mins reading time)

In Sangin, says a farmer, ‘people are sick of night raids and being treated badly by the foreigners’

As with so many of the Helmand towns where the British are present the bazaar in Sangin is officially “thriving”.

Indeed, recent visitors have to admit that there are signs of commerce in the long thin strip of shops. But the rest, says David Gill, a photographer who visited Sangin three times last year, is like “a ghost town in Death Valley where you drive through and all you see is a sign flapping in the wind”.  Read more... (709 words, 1 image, estimated 2:50 mins reading time)

The Ministry of Defence is “institutionally incapable” of running a successful campaign in Afghanistan, a top Army commander has claimed in a critical assessment of the operation in Helmand province.

Major-General Andrew Mackay, who commanded 52 Infantry Brigade in Helmand when he was a brigadier, resigned in September after voicing personal doubts about the way the campaign was being run.

In a paper published by the MoD’s Defence Academy at Shrivenham, in Oxfordshire, General Mackay says that messages from London often had “no relevance at ground level” to troops engaged in contact with the Taleban. He described the messages from the MoD as “a diluted and distant memory” by the time that they reached the front line.  Read more... (573 words, 1 image, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

A SOLDIER from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment has died after an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today, marking the first fatality in 2010.

The soldier, who has not yet been named, was killed on foot patrol in the Nad-e Ali area, Helmand Province, Afghanistan yesterday afternoon.

Next of kin have been informed.

His death – which is the first British fatality in Afghanistan since the turn of the New Year – takes the number of British service personnel who have died since the start of operations in the war-torn country in 2001 to 246.  Read more... (204 words, 1 image, estimated 49 secs reading time)

Friday 1 January 2010

The number of British soldiers killed in the conflict since 2001 now stands at 245, including 108 in 2009

A British soldier has been killed after an explosion in Afghanistan‘s Helmand province, the Ministry of Defence said today.

The soldier, who has not yet been named, was from 33 Engineer Regiment and part of a taskforce working to counter improvised explosive devices (IED). He died yesterday from wounds sustained in a blast close to Patrol Base Blenheim, near Sangin.  Read more... (228 words, 1 image, estimated 55 secs reading time)

First Published: 11:00AM BST 13 Jul 2009

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has insisted Britain’s strategy in Afghanistan is “very clear” and said it would “make us safer here”.

Mr Miliband was forced to defend the Government’s strategy after severe criticism of the bloody escalation in the conflict.

There has been mounting public concern about the way the campaign is being conducted following the deaths of 15 British soldiers since the start of July. Speaking on GMTV, Mr Miliband said: “This is a mission that’s been developed with a very clear strategy: above all, to make us safer here because we know these areas of Afghanistan and its neighbour Pakistan are used to launch terrorism around the world.  Read more... (1303 words, 1 image, estimated 5:13 mins reading time)

More and more British troops are being saved at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan as Taliban steps up its assaults

They are known by the medics at Camp Bastion as “Holy Shit Sundays”, the darkest day of the week when the Taliban are most likely to strike. A popular theory going round the British forces‘ headquarters in Afghanistan holds that the Taliban stop for Friday prayers, plan their attacks on Saturday and carry them out the following day. And they are doing so with increasing regularity.  Read more... (1510 words, 1 image, estimated 6:02 mins reading time)

The background to UK military involvement in Afghanistan.

Following the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on 11 September 2001, the United Kingdom identified four main goals in its campaign against international terrorism (known as Operation VERITAS): deny Al Qaida its Afghan base, deny them an alternative base outside Afghanistan, attack Al Qaida internationally, and support other states in their efforts against Al Qaida.

The UK was involved in Afghanistan alongside Coalition forces, led by the US under Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), from the first attacks in October 2001. Royal Navy submarines fired Tomahawk missiles against the Taliban and Al Qaida networks, and RAF aircraft provided reconnaissance and air-to-air refuelling capabilities in support of US strike aircraft. The US flew missions from Diego Garcia, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.  Read more... (1311 words, 1 image, estimated 5:15 mins reading time)

London, England (CNN) — British troops will get new camouflage uniforms for the first time in more than 40 years, based on computer modeling of Afghanistan‘s terrain, the Ministry of Defence announced Sunday.

The “multi-terrain pattern,” as the military has dubbed the new design, is the first new pattern from the Ministry of Defence since 1968, it said.

It is specifically designed with Afghanistan’s Helmand province in mind, the ministry said in a statement. The British military have suffered heavy losses in the southern province this year. More than 100 British troops have died in Afghanistan in 2009, making it the deadliest for UK troops in many years.  Read more... (232 words, 1 image, estimated 56 secs reading time)

Footage shown of British casualties in Afghanistan during monarch’s Christmas Day broadcast

The Queen used her Christmas message to the nation to express her sadness at the heavy death toll suffered in Afghanistan in the bloodiest year for British forces since the 2001 invasion.

The monarch said Britain owed a profound “debt of gratitude” to all past and present troops who have served in the war-torn country.

Footage was shown of the July day when eight military coffins passed through Wootton Bassett, the Wiltshire town which has become synonymous with the conflict, as the Queen paid tribute to the families and friends of all those killed in Afghanistan.  Read more... (506 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)