Nato foreign ministers have snubbed Gordon Brown‘s plans for a staged withdrawal from the districts of Helmand by agreeing to handover reponsibility to local officials on a province by province basis.

British troops could be the last to leave Afghanistan after it emerged that a new “road map” for handing over control would not include the southern provinces.  Read more... (404 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Inquest told of 500lb bomb dropped on wrong target in Afghanistan ‘friendly fire‘ incident.

A commanding officer today relived the “grim” moment a US aircraft dropped a 500lb bomb on a position held by British troops, killing three soldiers.

Privates Aaron McClure, Robert Foster, both 19, and John Thrumble, 21, were under intense fire in Afghanistan’s Helmand province when the F15 fighter jet, called in to help, dropped the bomb on them instead of a Taliban position a kilometre further north.

The inquest had previously heard that grid co-ordinates communicated between an air controller and an American weapons officer “did not marry up”.  Read more... (537 words, 1 image, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

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)

Almost a quarter of the low-ranking Taleban commanders lured out of the insurgency in southern Afghanistan have rejoined the fight because of broken government promises and paltry rewards, a scathing report on reintegration claims.

Nato plans to spend more than $1 billion (£648 million) over the next five years tempting Taleban foot soldiers to lay down their arms.

But research by a Kabul-based thinktank warns that those efforts could make matters worse by swelling the ranks of the insurgency, exacerbating village level feuds and fuelling government corruption.  Read more... (766 words, 1 image, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

KABUL — Amid intelligence reports alleging that Taliban insurgents are holding civilians as hostages, American and Afghan forces moved cautiously through the Taliban stronghold of Marjah on Monday as they pressed the biggest offensive since the U.S. landed troops in Afghanistan more than eight years ago.

The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had issued an apology Sunday for the deaths of 12 civilians who were killed in Marjah, saying that an American rocket “failed to hit intended target” and struck a house 300 yards away. U.S. and Afghan forces in a mixed unit had come under sustained fire before American troops fired the rocket.  Read more... (367 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

KABUL, Afghanistan — The current U.S.-led military operation in Helmand province is a trial run for what could be the decisive clash with the Taliban in Afghanistan this summer in the area that is its spiritual home — Kandahar.

Officials at the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) say the focus of the coalition will shift from Helmand to Kandahar — the big prize for both the Taliban and the coalition. Kandahar city is home to around 1 million people, while Marjah, the target of the massive ongoing offensive in Helmand, is an obscure dusty town of 85,000 inhabitants that had turned into a Taliban stronghold.  Read more... (588 words, 1 image, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Family and comrades of Lance Sergeant David Walker honour the memory of a ‘terrific’ family man and ‘rock-hard’ soldier

Tributes have been paid to Lance Sergeant David Walker, of 1st Battalion Scots Guards, who was killed in Afghanistan while fighting the Taliban.

Walker, 36, died on Thursday in Nad-e-Ali, an insurgent stronghold in Helmand province. He was the third British solder killed while taking part in Operation Moshtarak – a joint UK, US and Afghan assault against the Taliban.

His family released a statement which read: “We are devastated by the loss of David, who was a terrific husband and father.  Read more... (496 words, 1 image, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Friends of a British soldier killed in Afghanistan have spoken of their anger at plans by a controversial Islamic group to march through the town which honours fallen troops.

The Union flag-draped coffins carrying Rifleman Aidan Howell and Sapper David Watson were driven through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire for their repatriation today.

Sapper Watson, 23, of 33 Engineer Regiment – a bomb disposal expert – and Rifleman Howell, 19, of 3rd Battalion the Rifles, were killed in Afghanistan in the last week of December.  Read more... (605 words, 1 image, estimated 2:25 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)