History > 2007 > UK > Wars > Afghanistan (I)

Schrank

The Independent

27 February 2007

Fourth British soldier

killed in Afghanistan

July 30, 2007
From Times Online
Times Online

A Royal Marine was killed yesterday during operations in southern Afghanistan, the fourth British serviceman to die in the past five days.

The Ministry of Defence revealed the death today in a statement, and said that the dead soldier would be named tomorrow.

The statement said: “We regret to confirm that a member of the Royal Marines has been killed during operations in southern Afghanistan yesterday, Sunday July 29.

“Next of kin have been informed and further details will be released after the usual 24-hour period of grace.”

The death brings the number of British military fatalities in the country since the start of operations in November 2001 to 68.

On Friday, Sergeant Barry Keen, 34, from 245 Signal Squadron, 14 Signals Regiment, Royal Corps of Signals, was fatally wounded in a rocket attack in southern Afghanistan.

Sgt Keen, from Rowlands Gill, Gateshead, was killed in an indirect fire attack on a compound near the village of Mirmandab. He had been reorganising with his team in a secured area, after acting in support of the Afghan National Army, when a single mortar round landed next to him.

He was serving as a communications specialist attached to Battle Group (South), which is deployed on Operation Chakush (“Hammer”), fighting the Taliban in the Upper Geresk Valley, Helmand Province.

The day before Sgt Keen’s death, Guardsman David Atherton, 25, from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed during fierce fighting as part of Operation Chakush.

On Wednesday, Lance Corporal Alex Hawkins, from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, died in an explosion while travelling in a Vector patrol vehicle on the outskirts of Sangin.

Fourth British soldier killed in Afghanistan, Ts online, 30.7.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2167710.ece

We're running out of troops,

warns army chief

· Defence memo leak says virtually no reserves left

· 'Intense tempo of life' due to Iraq and Afghan fighting

Saturday July 21, 2007
Guardian
Richard Norton-Taylor

The head of the army has warned that Britain is almost running out of troops to defend the country or fight in military operations abroad.

The warning by General Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, to fellow defence chiefs comes at a time when the army is asking for a big increase in reservists to be deployed in Afghanistan, reflecting a crisis in Britain's armed forces.

In a secret memorandum he says: "We now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected." Reinforcements for emergencies or for operations in Iraq or Afghanistan were "now almost non-existent".

He adds: "The enduring nature and scale of current operations continues to stretch people". Gen Dannatt warns the army had to "augment" 2,500 troops from other units for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to bring up the total force to the 13,000 needed there. This remained "far higher than we ever assumed", he says.

He continues: "When this is combined with the effects of under-manning (principally in the infantry and Royal Artillery) and the pace of training support needed to prepare units for operations, the tempo of life in the Field Army is intense." While the current situation was "manageable", Gen Dannatt said he was "concerned about the longer term implications of the impact of this level of operations on our people, equipment and future operational capability".

The general's warnings, in a document leaked to the Daily Telegraph, come at a time when the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury are finalising spending plans for the next three years in the comprehensive spending review expected to be revealed in October. The three service chiefs are arguing among themselves about how the money should be spent. The navy is expected next week to be told it will get two new aircraft carriers at a cost of between £2bn and £3bn and fewer destroyers and frigates than it wants.

Gordon Brown, the prime minister who as chancellor fought regularly with the MoD, has told defence chiefs to sort out a deal among themselves, according to defence sources.

As the army has been forced to call up 600 reservists for Afghanistan there is only one Spearhead battalion of 500 troops, available for an emergency.

Gen Dannatt's memo says Britain's other rapid deployment unit, the Airborne Task Force, made up mainly of Paras, was unable to fully deploy "due to shortages in manpower, equipment and stocks".

It is not the first time Gen Dannatt has expressed concern about pressure on the army. Soon after he took up his post last August he told the Guardian that the army was "running hot" and called for a national debate on defence.

    We're running out of troops, warns army chief, G, 21.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2131699,00.html

9am

Basra attack kills three RAF personnel

Friday July 20, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Agencies

Three Royal Air Force personnel have been killed and several other people wounded in an attack on a military compound in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a military spokesman said today.

Major Matthew Bird said the airport camp came under several "indirect fire attacks" - the term usually used to refer to mortar and rocket attacks.

Major Bird said: "Unfortunately [the attack] resulted in the death of three British service personnel belonging to the Royal Air Force. A number of personnel were also injured, and some of them remain in the military hospital at the airport for treatment."

He said the families of the victims had been informed.

Attacks on British bases in Basra occur almost every day. The latest deaths raises to six the number of British troops killed in Iraq this month, with at least 161 killed since the invasion in March 2003.

Britain has withdrawn hundreds of troops from Iraq, leaving a force of around 5,500 based mainly on the fringes of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 340 miles south-east of Baghdad.

British troops in Afghanistan came under renewed attack today, with three soldiers wounded in a suicide car bombing in the southern province of Helmand.

The provincial police chief, Hussain Andiwal, told Reuters that the attack was in the Sangin district of Helmand where British troops have been engaged in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents for more than a year.

    Basra attack kills three RAF personnel, G, 20.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2130964,00.html

Failure in Afghanistan

risks rise in terror, say generals

Military chiefs warn No.10
that defeat could lead to change of regime in Pakistan

Sunday July 15, 2007
The Observer
Nicholas Watt and Ned Temko

Britain's most senior generals have issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighbouring Pakistan.

Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain.

Lord Inge, the former chief of the defence staff, highlighted their fears in public last week when he warned of a 'strategic failure' in Afghanistan. The Observer understands that Inge was speaking with the direct authority of the general staff when he made an intervention in a House of Lords debate.

'The situation in Afghanistan is much worse than many people recognise,' Inge told peers. 'We need to face up to that issue, the consequence of strategic failure in Afghanistan and what that would mean for Nato... We need to recognise that the situation - in my view, and I have recently been in Afghanistan - is much, much more serious than people want to recognise.'

Inge's remarks reflect the fears of serving generals that the government is so overwhelmed by Iraq that it is in danger of losing sight of the threat of failure in Afghanistan. One source, who is familiar with the fears of the senior officers, told The Observer: 'If you talk privately to the generals they are very very worried. You heard it in Inge's speech. Inge said we are failing and remember Inge speaks for the generals.'

Inge made a point in the Lords of endorsing a speech by Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, who painted a bleak picture during the debate. Ashdown told The Observer that Afghanistan presented a graver threat than Iraq.

'The consequences of failure in Afghanistan are far greater than in Iraq,' he said. 'If we fail in Afghanistan then Pakistan goes down. The security problems for Britain would be massively multiplied. I think you could not then stop a widening regional war that would start off in warlordism but it would become essentially a war in the end between Sunni and Shia right across the Middle East.'

'Mao Zedong used to refer to the First and Second World Wars as the European civil wars. You can have a regional civil war. That is what you might begin to see. It will be catastrophic for Nato. The damage done to Nato in Afghanistan would be as great as the damage done to the UN in Bosnia. That could have a severe impact on the Atlantic relationship and maybe even damage the American security guarantee for Europe.'

Ashdown said two mistakes were being made: a lack of a co-ordinated military command because of the multinational 'hearts and minds' Nato campaign and the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom offensive campaign against the Taliban. There was also insufficient civic support on, for example, providing clean water.

Ashdown warned: 'Unless we put this right, unless we have a unitary system of command, we are going to lose. The battle for this is the battle of public opinion. The polls are slipping. Once they go on the slide it is almost impossible to win it back. You can only do it with the support of the local population.

'There is a very short shelf life for an occupation force. Once that begins to shift against you it is very very difficult to turn it round.'

The warnings from Ashdown and the generals on Afghanistan will be echoed in a report this week by the all-party Commons defence select committee. MPs will say that the combination of civilian casualties, war damage and US-led efforts to eradicate lucrative poppy crops risk turning ordinary people towards the Taliban.

Stepped-up reconstruction efforts are essential, the MPs will suggest, in order to ensure local residents understand the longer-term aim of the British-led Nato mission - a point echoed, during the committee hearings on Afghanistan earlier this year, by returning British commander General David Richards.

The report is also expected to criticise some Nato members for failing to provide sufficient troops or other support for the Afghan mission.

Adam Holloway, a Tory member of the committee who is a former Grenadier Guards officer, said: 'We are getting to the point where it will be irretrievable. That's where we are now. We are in danger of a second strategic failure [after Iraq], which we cannot afford.'

    Failure in Afghanistan risks rise in terror, say generals, O, 15.7.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2126817,00.html

3.30pm

British soldier

killed in Afghanistan named

Friday July 13, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

A British soldier killed during fighting in southern Afghanistan was named today as Guardsman Daryl Hickey.

The soldier was shot while on an operation with Afghan troops yesterday near Gereshk, in the southern Helmand province.

He was evacuated from the scene by helicopter but was pronounced dead on arrival at the field hospital.

Two other British soldiers were injured while fighting in a separate part of the operation.

Guardsman Hickey, from the 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards, had been operating as part of the 1st Battalion Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment battle group.

They had been fighting in the Rahim Kalay area, six miles north of Gereshk, since July 7, targeting Taliban insurgents who were intimidating the local population, said an army spokeswoman in Helmand.

"The intent of these operations was, in stages, to disrupt Taliban activities, to defeat their attacks - it was unclear whether the enemy would stand and fight or melt away - and to drive Taliban fighters from the area," she said.

Guardsman Hickey's death brought the number of British military fatalities in Afghanistan since the start of operations in November 2001 to 64.

Of these, 41 were killed in action or died as a result of injuries sustained in action, while 23 are known to have died either as a result of illness, non-combat injuries or accidents.

    British soldier killed in Afghanistan named, NYT, 13.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2125963,00.html

Two more British soldiers

killed in clashes with the Taliban

Monday July 2, 2007
Guardian
Helen Pidd

Two British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan this weekend, taking the toll of British deaths since the start of hostilities in 2001 to 63.

On Saturday a soldier from 1st Battalion the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters was shot dead by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence confirmed. He was acting as a liaison officer between the battalion and a joint US taskforce and an Afghan national army operation south-west of Sangin, in the lawless Helmand province.

His group were trying to stop the Taliban from setting up a possible ambush site near the village of Qaleh-e-Gaz when a coalition vehicle was hit by an explosion. While destroying the vehicle to keep it out of enemy hands, the coalition force was fired on, resulting in the soldier's injury. He was taken to the military hospital in Camp Bastion but died from his wounds.

Yesterday another Briton died in Helmand. The soldier, from 19 Regiment Royal Artillery, was killed when his vehicle was blown up following an exchange of fire. The clash happened after a patrol left a base in Gareshk. They were hit by small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.

After the initial engagement, a vehicle exploded and there were five casualties. The injured were flown to an ISAF medical facility in Camp Bastion and one soldier was pronounced dead on arrival.

Of the 63 British deaths in Afghanistan, 40 were killed in action or died of wounds sustained in action. A further 23 are known to have died either as a result of illness, non-combat injuries or accidents, or causes not yet established.

    Two more British soldiers killed in clashes with the Taliban, I, 2.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2116295,00.html

British Open Fire in Afghanistan

June 24, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:59 a.m. ET
The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A roadside bomb hit a convoy of British troops Sunday, wounding one soldier and prompting them to open fire in a civilian area in insurgency-plagued Helmand province, killing one man, police said.

Also in the south, militants executed the kidnapped son of a police officer, reneging on a deal to free him in exchange for the release of a Taliban commander, while the latest violence killed more than a dozen suspected militants, a U.S.-led coalition soldier and four Afghan troops.

A remote-controlled bomb hit a NATO convoy, wounding one British soldier Sunday morning and prompting British troops to open fire south of Helmand's main city of Lashkar Gah, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain.

Hussain said the British gunfire killed one man, but it was not clear if the victim was a civilian or a militant involved in the attack.

Raz Mohammad Sayed, director of a local hospital, said one man was killed, and another man was wounded by British gunfire. He referred to both victims as ''civilians.''

At the hospital, Saad Mohammad, the brother of the man killed, said he was with his brother when the British forces opened fire in different directions, including at houses in the area.

On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused foreign soldiers of carelessly killing scores of Afghan civilians and warned that the fight against resurgent Taliban militants could fail unless foreign forces show more restraint.

''Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such,'' Karzai said in an angry rebuke that drew a contrite acknowledgment from NATO that it must ''do better.''

In the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, Karzai said. The mounting toll is sapping the authority of the Western-backed Afghan president, who has pleaded repeatedly with U.S. and NATO commanders to consult Afghan authorities during operations and show more restraint.

Asked about the attack on the British forces and subsequent shooting, the press office of NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed violence with NATO casualties in the south. It did not give any further details, saying it was looking into incident.

Separately in the Sangin district of Helmand, militants executed the kidnapped son of a police officer Saturday, reneging on a deal to release the hostage in exchange for a Taliban commander, said deputy district police chief Abdullah Khan.

The Taliban had initially demanded the release of the Taliban group commander, but after he was freed, they changed the terms of the deal, demanding that the district police chief -- the father of the hostage -- step down.

The militants killed the police chief's son Saturday night in Musa Qala, and handed his body over Sunday morning, Khan said. It was not clear how old the victim was.

In March, the Afghan government released five senior Taliban militants in exchange for the freedom of a kidnapped Italian journalist. The prisoner swap was heavily criticized and sparked fears that the deal would give the Taliban incentive to carry out more kidnappings.

Also in Helmand, insurgents opened fire on joint Afghan and coalition troops, who returned fire and called for airstrikes on the militants' position Saturday in Langar village, said a coalition statement.

Coalition helicopters and aircraft bombed ''positively identified enemy positions,'' killing more than one dozen enemy fighters, the statement said.

The battle also left one coalition soldier and an Afghan soldier dead, and there were no reports of Afghan civilians wounded, it said.

In other violence Sunday:

-- In western Farah province, a roadside bomb hit an Afghan army convoy, killing two soldiers and wounding three, one of them seriously, said Gen. Abdul Wahab Walizada, the western region army corps commander.

In central Wardak province, a bomb hit an Afghan army convoy, killing one soldier and wounding two others, a Defense Ministry statement said.

    British Open Fire in Afghanistan, NYT, 24.6.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan.html

Leading article:

One butcher's death

will not break the Taliban

Published: 14 May 2007
The Independent

Mullah Dadullah cheated death and capture so often he might have been an Afghan Robin Hood. But the former Taliban commander was no champion of the oppressed but a harbinger of death and a perpetrator of atrocious crimes against the legion of Afghans he considered traitors to his own skew-eyed version of Islam.

It's worth recalling some of those alleged traitors whom he and his underlings beheaded with verve and obvious enjoyment, often on camera.

Alongside the usual "American agents" they included Afghan reporters, Afghan aid workers Afghan school teachers - guilty of educating girls - and members of certain Afghan ethnic groups, above all the hapless Hazara of Bamiyan province among whom Mullah Dadullah conducted a killing spree in 2001. More recently, he brought terror to Afghanistan's cities in the form of suicide bombings. Almost unknown only a few years ago, Mullah Dadullah was behind their five-fold increase in 2006 compared to 2005, with the promise was that 2007 was going to be the bloodiest year since the Taliban's fall in 2001. He was, in other words, a vicious murderer of his fellow countrymen and outside the ranks of diehard Taliban supporters it is hard to imagine many Afghans reacting to the news of his death with anything other than relief.

The question is whether his removal will have much practical effect. Of course, his death will dismay his supporters, especially among those Pashtuns in Afghanistan and in Pakistan who were misguided enough to hail his bloodstained career as that of an anti-imperialist patriot. His sheer nerve, borne of an inner conviction of his own invincibility, will leave vacuum. Then again, few Taliban leaders so cannily grasped the possibilities of co-opting modern technology into the service of an extreme fundamentalist brand of Islam. The same man who thought all women should be kept in medieval ignorance was not shy of cameras, was famously accessibly to the news agencies for headline-sized quotes and sound bites, and assiduously distributed DVDs featuring his exploits as a recruitment aid.

At the same time, Nato must avoid the temptation to crow. Mullah Dadullah's death may derail the Taliban's spring 2007 offensive and bring short-term relief to the Kabul government. But the reasons why Hamid Karzai's regime has not been able to bring order to Afghanistan - and why the Taliban remains a force - are structural and long term and do not ultimately depend on the charisma of men such as Mullah Dadullah.

Nato's failure to finish the job in 2001, which was a direct consequence of the diversion of resources to Iraq, hobbled the democratically elected regime in Kabul from the start. Once they saw how little they were up against, the displaced but far-from-vanquished Taliban soon got over their shock at losing power, regrouped and started over. Meanwhile the failure to properly aid reconstruction in Afghanistan has saddled the Kabul government with the worst of both worlds. Dependent on the West - a shaming factor in the regional context - it has little to show for this in material terms. This has been a great weakness. Add to this an ill-thought-out Western drive to destroy poppy cultivation without offering farmers a plausible economic substitute, and the presence on the border of a rickety and unstable Pakistan, and circumstances appear unfavourable to the cause of ridding Afghanistan of the Taliban.

The Taliban has demonstrated its power to recover before. Until the main causes and resentments on which this very diverse insurgency feeds are addressed, no amount of apparent breakthroughs like the killing of Mullah Dadullah are likely to break it.

    Leading article: One butcher's death will not break the Taliban, I, 14.5.2007, http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2539336.ece

Family shocked

as MoD admits body parts error

British soldiers' body parts sent home in wrong coffins

Sunday April 29, 2007
The Observer
Mark Townsend, defence correspondent

Body parts of British soldiers who died on operations in Afghanistan have been mixed up and placed in the wrong coffins.

The government has admitted that the remains of at least one serviceman, who died in Britain's worst military disaster in the war, ended up inside another victim's coffin.

The issue came to light only when the personal belongings from one of the dead were given by RAF officials to a family who said they were not his.

Fourteen British servicemen died last September when a Nimrod MR2 crashed near Kandahar city. Relatives are now questioning how widespread the problems of identifying body parts are.

Trish Knight, whose 25-year-son Ben, a sergeant, died in the crash, said she was concerned that more body parts could have been mixed up and allocated to the wrong coffin: 'We don't know how many mistakes were made over this, but body parts were found in a wrong coffin and there may well have been more parts mixed up. We just don't know.'

She said the discovery almost prompted her to cancel Ben's funeral. 'We just thought: "How can we go ahead if we are not sure if it's Ben's body in there or maybe somebody else's"?'

The shadow Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, called on the Ministry of Defence to make sure such a thing could never happen again. 'This is a very delicate area of policy which has the potential to cause great distress to the families involved,' Fox said.

Families said they were informed of the mix-up by RAF officials at Kinloss air base in Morayshire, where 12 of the 14 victims from Number 120 squadron were based.

Concerns first arose over the treatment of British servicemen's body parts in 2003 after a Sea King helicopter crash in which eight British troops died as the ground invasion of Iraq began. Lawyers acting for four of the families involved in that incident said fears remained that the body parts of the dead servicemen went missing and were mixed up, concerns that were never satisfactorily explained by the MoD.

Geraldine McCool, of the Manchester-based MPH solicitor firm which is representing the relatives, said: 'The families I have spoken to lack confidence that they have been given the right body parts'.

Internal military papers reveal that the parts of those who died in the Sea King crash in March 2003 were secretly taken to the United States for DNA testing to separate the remains. Defence officials did not tell the families then. 'Partial bodies of their loved ones had been returned without the families being told the remains were potentially missing, in effect there was a drip-feed to relatives of body parts,' said McCool.

The internal report into the Sea King crash admitted that no UK procedure existed 'for the processing of dissociated body parts'.

Fox said: 'It's important that this is resolved and if there were recommendations from the inquiry that were not acted on, then the government should tell us why.'

An MoD spokesman said it had identified an incident where body parts had been mixed up: 'It was a regrettable problem that was quickly identified and dealt with before the funerals. The families involved were made aware of the situation.'

Defence sources said one possible reason for what happened might have been the short time military officials had to clear the crash site near Kandahar, which is regarded as a Taliban stronghold. They had had only 24 hours to clear the vast site.

Knight said she had other concerns. 'A few months later a box was found of people's possessions belonging to the flight that had somehow gone astray and been left in a room and forgotten about.' The Knight family were also concerned that they were offered no counselling by the MoD.

    Family shocked as MoD admits body parts error, O, 29.4.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2068121,00.html

Life and death on the M*A*S*H shift

Monday April 16, 2007
Guardian
Declan Walsh in Helmand, Afghanistan

Captain Nick Walker, an army doctor, and three other medics were nearing the end of their 24-hour shift in Afghanistan's Helmand province early last Friday morning. It had been moderately busy. The night before, the team - this war's mobile equivalent of Korea's M*A*S*H - rescued two US soldiers injured when their vehicle hit a landmine near Sangin, the remote narco-hub that Nato snatched from the Taliban two weeks ago. Afterwards they watched a Hollywood movie. But 50 minutes before they were due to knock off, the red phone on their desk rang. Three British casualties, the voice reported, one of them "T1" - in imminent danger.

Fifteen minutes later the medics were in a Chinook helicopter, its nose tilted forward as it skimmed over the swollen river Helmand, mud-walled compounds and fields of red poppies. It flew low and hard, banking and curling to avoid enemy fire. It banged to earth on a field just outside Naw Zad, a small village where Britain established a platoon house last summer.

Dust swept through the cabin and a small team of marine commandos leapt out to form a protective ring around the helicopter. White mortar smoke drifted in the distance. Corporal Kevin Mills, an RAF paramedic, readied his bag of syringes and medicine, then trained his rifle on the horizon.

Private Chris Gray, 19, arrived on an armoured truck. A Taliban bullet had hit him in the chest and his heart had stopped beating. The medics got to work immediately; one pumping the heart, another administering drugs while a third drained his chest wound. The chopper lifted and the yellow haze of Helmand blurred past again. Streaming with sweat in the cramped cabin, they took turns to pump his heart. The marine commandos watched anxiously. One helped to hold a drip aloft. Sergeant Kevin Scrafton ripped off his flak jacket.

At the base, Camp Bastion, Pte Gray underwent emergency surgery. But it was too late. Moments later he was dead. He suffered little, doctors said. "He was unconscious throughout his treatment and did not suffer," they said.

Armed with cutting-edge medical technology and SA-80 rifles, British military medics are on call to fly into some of Afghanistan's hotspots.

Officers pride themselves on offering some of the most sophisticated emergency care in the world - better, they like to claim, than the NHS. The service, they say, is non-discriminating. They treat British soldiers, American allies and Afghan children. They even treat the Taliban.

Pte Gray was the eighth British soldier to die in combat in Helmand this year. Nato's sweep into the Taliban heartland, in the Sangin valley, has led to the death of at least six coalition soldiers. It's also been a busy time in the Helmand emergency room. The medical emergency response team, or MERT as it is properly known, boasts cutting-edge technology. Doctors include a raft of consultants. A Dutch-run blood bank next door freezes blood products at minus -80C (-112F).

"We are pushing the boundaries," said Colonel Tim Hodgetts, the defence professor of emergency medicine. "History proves that medicine advances leaps and bounds during conflict."

The slick operation is partly a product of the post 9/11 world. "To be honest in campaigns such as Bosnia we didn't have much to do. But here it's full on," said Capt Walker.

The medics see the worst of war, yet remain phlegmatic. If anything surprises them, it is the inexplicable chance they term "God's dice". "You are in a room and one person gets blown up, the other has a scratch. That's just the way it is," said Surgeon Commander Steve Bree.

A little black humour also helps. As he injected the painkiller ketamine into Christopher Vance, a wounded American soldier who lost part of two fingers, on Saturday night, Col Hodgetts told him to enjoy it. "People pay good money for this on the streets," he said.

Afghans have also been treated, including civilians who have been shot, children burned in domestic fires, and wounded Afghan national army (ANA) soldiers.

Then there is the enemy. Last Tuesday "Terry", as he has been called, who is with the Taliban, was sent by American forces. On Saturday he was in the intensive care unit. Across the corridor, a British soldier with a bandaged arm was propped up in bed. Corporal Billy Moore, 30, led Private Gray into battle last Friday. The soldier went down fighting, he said.

They had been on a clearance patrol when suddenly a group of armed men emerged from behind a wall. Cpl Moore and Pte Gray opened fire. Four Taliban fell. When Pte Gray was shot, Cpl Moore stood covered him while other soldiers dragged him to safety. Apaches hovered and F-15 fighters screamed past. Then Cpl Moore was shot in the arm. The other injured soldier, Private Craig Fisher, 21, was shot in the leg. "I heard the crack of rounds overhead, then I took cover in a ditch." They are expected to make a full recovery.

For 30-year-old Cpl Moore, even amid the tragedy the greater mission in Afghanistan is not his concern; he was just a soldier doing his job. "We just do the dirty job on the bottom," he said with a smile.

    Life and death on the M*A*S*H shift, G, 16.4.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2058040,00.html

4pm update

British soldier killed

in Afghanistan offensive

Tuesday March 6, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Agencies

A Royal Marine was killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today as Nato launched its biggest offensive since the war began in 2001.

The soldier was serving with 42 Commando, in the Kajaki area of the troubled Helmand province, when his unit came under fire.

An MoD spokesman said the marine - the 51st British soldier to be killed while on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 - had been taking part in a planned operation.

"The Royal Marine was killed when his unit came under fire during a deliberate clearance operation in the Kajaki area," the MoD said. He was not named.

British troops have been fighting Taliban forces in Kajaki, northern Helmand, to enable repair work on a hydroelectric dam, which supplies close to 2 million Afghans with electricity.

The latest offensive came as thousands of people protested in the eastern city of Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border, over the killing of several civilians by US troops on Sunday.

At least 2,000 people blocked the motorway between the city and Kabul, a major trade route to Pakistan, chanting "Death to Americans", witnesses said.

They demanded strict action by the government against US marines who opened fire after their convoy was hit by a suicide bomber.

Officials say at least 10 civilians were killed and the New York-based Human Rights Watch puts the figure at between eight and 16.

The US military will only say 16 people died in the suicide attack and subsequent shooting after militants opened fire.

On Monday, American forces also killed nine civilians - five women, three children and an older man - with a 900kg (2,000lb) bomb near Kabul after a nearby US base was attacked.

The current offensive, Operation Achilles, involving 4,500 Nato soldiers and 1,000 Afghans, began at about dawn in Helmand, the world's biggest producer of opium.

The government has little control over many parts of northern Helmand, where British troops fight almost daily with militants.

US intelligence officials say Taliban fighters have flooded into Helmand in past months, and that there are now more fighters there than in any other part of the country.

The militants overran Musa Qala, in central Helmand, early last month despite a controversial peace deal between the government and elders at the end of last year. The Taliban still control the town more than a month after the initial attack.

"Strategically, our goal is to enable the Afghan government to begin the Kajaki project," the head of the alliance's southern command, Dutch Major-General Ton van Loon, said in a statement.

"This long-term initiative is a huge undertaking and the eventual rehabilitation of the Kajaki multipurpose dam and power house will improve the water supply for local communities, rehabilitate irrigation systems for farmlands and provide sufficient electrical power for residents, industries and commerce," he said.

Nato has about 33,000 troops in the country, including support personnel. This is the second Nato offensive in Helmand in less than a year. Nine months ago, 11,000 US-led troops were in the area for Operation Mountain Thrust.

    British soldier killed in Afghanistan offensive, G, 6.3.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2027615,00.html

1.30pm

Taliban threatens 'bloodiest year'

as UK boosts troops

Friday February 23, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

The Taliban today threatened the deadliest year yet for foreign troops in Afghanistan as the government prepared to announce the deployment of 1,000 more British troops to the country.

"This year will prove to be the bloodiest for the foreign troops. It is not just a threat: we will prove it," the senior Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah told the Reuters news agency via satellite phone, adding that militants would be armed with shipments of new guns.

"The Taliban's war preparations are going on in caves and in mountains. Our 6,000 fighters are ready for attacks on foreign troops after the change in weather and as it becomes warmer," he said.

The defence secretary, Des Browne, is expected to announce the deployment officially on Monday. But the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, confirmed today that the government was thinking of sending more troops to the country.

Mr Browne was considering "the appropriate level of forces to make sure we can have an effective fight in which we roll the Taliban back and stop them recapturing Afghanistan", he told Sky News.

The increase in forces was reported to the cabinet yesterday amid what was described as a heavy discussion about the situation in the country and the efforts needed to shore up the government in Kabul. The new military push is expected to cost the Treasury £250m.

The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan until a US-led invasion of the country in late 2001, has said it will increase the use of suicide attacks after conventional battles brought heavy rebel losses last year.

Mullah Dadullah told Reuters new weaponry included armaments capable of bringing down coalition helicopters.

Next week's anticipated announcement on British troops follows a Nato review of its Afghan deployment and the Bush government's announcement last week of its intention to spend an extra £5.4bn on bolstering its efforts in Afghanistan.

Nato has 35,000 troops in Afghanistan, 5,000 of whom are British. These are stationed in Helmand province, a former Taliban stronghold still responsible for 60% of Afghanistan's opium production.

The deepening of Britain's commitment comes a day after Tony Blair told MPs of plans for a cut of 1,600 British troops in southern Iraq by the summer, to roughly 7,100. Further reductions were planned later in the year.

The move also comes after the Italian coalition government led by Romano Prodi resigned on Tuesday after it lost a vote in parliament, largely over its plans to retain nearly 2,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Other Nato countries, among them France and Germany, have faced increasing criticism for restricting their troops' operations to more peaceful areas of Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells urged Britain's allies to do more in the country, telling parliament that some of their helicopters might as well be "parked up in leading European airports" for all the good they were doing in Afghanistan.

But the shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, today accused the British government itself of failing to do enough.

"Those troops should be coming from countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain, who have so far not shown the adequate resolve to be part of a full Nato complement in Afghanistan," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"It is clear that the government has failed to get our Nato allies to carry their share of the burden in Afghanistan."

Nato has been preparing for an increase in Taliban activity once the winter snows melt. It is also concerned that its plans to slash farmers' relatively remunerative poppy production could lead to a backlash.

A lack of intelligence cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan has led to angry Afghan allegations that the Pakistani government has allowed the Taliban to regroup, so making their country prey again to terrorists and narcotics. The lack of cooperation is partly due to a century-long border dispute between the two countries.

A Royal Marine yesterday became the second to die in Afghanistan in two days, the MoD said last night. The marine, from 42 Commando, died as a result of injuries he suffered in a road traffic accident earlier this month.

The other marine, who was killed on Wednesday when he stepped on a mine, was named yesterday as Jonathan Holland, 23, from 45 Commando. He was engaged to be married.

    Taliban threatens 'bloodiest year' as UK boosts troops, G, 23.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2020034,00.html

Another true story of our asylum policy

Abdullah Tokhi fled Afghanistan in fear of his life.
He asked for sanctuary in Britain. We sent him back. Within a year he was dead

Published: 05 February 2007
The New York Times
By Kim Sengupta in Paghman, Afghanistan

They shot Abdullah Tokhi dead at midday, in a crowded street in a bazaar. It was a very public "execution", a message to show that his killers knew they would never be brought to account for their crime.

Mr Tokhi and his family had long feared this would happen. He repeatedly pleaded while seeking asylum in Britain that his life was in danger in a sectarian and political blood feud back home . But the Home Secretary at the time decided that Afghanistan was now a safe place thanks to the intervention of Britain and the US, and Mr Tokhi was sent back to his home, and his death, after the appeal process failed.

The murder of Mr Tokhi, 35, was one of many that happen every week in this country, six years after "liberation". But this was one death that could have been prevented if the officials in London who turned down his plea for refuge had acknowledged what is really going on, instead of sticking ridgidly to the official position that the rule of law prevails in Afghanistan.

A week after his father's death, 10-year-old Nasratullah was on his way to school when he was shot from a car. The bullets hit him on the arm and legs. "I was very sad about what had happened to my father," said Nasratullah. "I knew there were bad people who had killed him. But I did not think that they would try to attack me. It hurt a lot when I was shot. Now I am very scared, for myself, and also my brother and sisters. We would like to move away from here, but we do not know where to go ... I miss my father very much."

Today Mr Tokhi's widow, two sons and seven daughters live in fear at a farm in Paghman, south-east of Kabul. They say the police were complicit in the death and the suspected killers can be seen in the area, walking around with impunity. Amanullah, an elder brother of Mr Tokhi, has been killed, as well as one of his sons, Sayed Agha.

The account given by Mr Tokhi in his asylum application stated that the family originally lived in the village of Bangarak in the Kalakan region in the north at a time when the ruling Taliban, overwhelmingly Pashtun, carried out widespread persecution of the Tajik population in the area. After the American and British invasion of 2001, the Northern Alliance, predominantly Tajiks and Uzbeks, took control and began hunting down those who had helped the Taliban.

Mr Tokhi, from a prominent Pashtun family, was one of those accused of funding the Taliban, a charge his family denied. He was arrested by the Northern Alliance and spent eight months in jail. While there, his brother Ameenullah and nephew Sayeed Agha were murdered.

The Independent, while investigating Mr Tokhi's account, could find no evidence he had been an active member of the Taliban. Some Tajiks, however, voiced suspicion that he may have given money to the Islamists. His family insists that this was coerced from them.

Mr Tokhi and his family had moved to Paghman after his release. A little later he went to Peshawar in Pakistan and was smuggled from there to Dover, arriving in November 2002. After applying for asylum he moved tosouth London.

As Mr Tokhi continued his efforts to stay in Britain, the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated, with regions falling into lawlessness. The Taliban moved back into this vacuum. Mr Tokhi's apprehension about his family's safetyincreased after reports that his enemies, who he believed to be Tajiks from Kalakan, had tracked his family to their home in Paghman.

Mr Tokhi's application for asylum was turned down by David Blunkett, when he was Home Secretary, as was his appeal. He returned to Afghanistan in September 2004 and was killed in autumn 2005 .

In January last year, John Reid, as Defence Secretary, announced the deployment of almost 6,000 troops to combat the growing insurgency in Afghanistan. And the Government has just announced that a further 800 would be sent in anticipation of continuing violence.

Mohammed Shapur, Mr Tokhi's brother-in-law, said: "Abdullah's wife still cries every day. But there is nothing we can do. The police have done nothing, and we don't expect them to. I used to speak to Abdullah on the telephone and at first he was full of hope.

"He used to say that England was a good place and one could build a life there away from all the trouble. But then he became more depressed because the English authorities would not believe him. They told him Afghanistan was safe, and he should go back.

"His enemies killed him and they do not fear anything. We see them and no one does anything to arrest them. I fear for the young ones. I pray that Allah protects them."

    Another true story of our asylum policy, I, 5.2.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2237648.ece

600 more troops

set to bolster frontline Afghan forces

January 23, 2007
Michael Evans, Defence Editor
The Times

Reinforcements to replace Marines

Infantrt regiment is put on stand-by

An extra infantry battalion of about 600 soldiers has been put on standby to be sent to Afghanistan in March to increase the size of the British force to more than 6,500 Service personnel.


A decision by ministers on the expected reinforcements is due soon because preparations are already far in advance to replace the Royal Marines currently deployed in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. The Marines of 3 Commando Brigade are due to return home in March.

They are being replaced by 12 Mechanised Brigade, commanded by Brigadier John Lorimer. He has been on a reconnaissance mission to Helmand to review troop requirements for his tour of duty.

The brigade is due in Helmand in March with only two infantry regiments, the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, replacing 42 and 45 Royal Marine Commandos. Now it appears likely that there will be three.

The extra infantry regiment earmarked for Afghanistan is the 1st Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, which is currently based in London on public duties. This regiment is not normally part of 12 Mechanised Brigade.

The standby alert for The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, based at Cavalry Barracks in Hounslow, was raised yesterday by Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, during Defence Questions in the Commons. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, refused to respond to remarks that he called speculation.

The expected decision to increase the size of the force comes after a review of the security situation in southern Afghanistan, where attacks by the Taleban have continued since the first British force, based around 16 Air Assault Brigade, arrived in Helmand province in the spring of last year.

In the past, the winter months in Afghanistan have brought a tailing-off of Taleban activity, with the fighting season returning in the spring.

However, 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines followed the aggressive tactics adopted by the paratroopers of 16 Air Assault Brigade and took the fight to the Taleban as soon as they arrived in Helmand in September, with the result that the conflict has remained at a high level. The intensity of the battles has forced ministers to consider whether more troops are needed.

There are currently 6,000 British Service personnel from all three Armed Forces in Afghanistan, with 5,000 based in the south.

An increase of an extra infantry battalion would bring the size of the force in Afghanistan closer to Britain’s military strength in Iraq, where there are currently 7,200 troops.

The addition of The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters would give Brigadier Lorimer greater flexibility. However, it was not clear whether he had asked for more troops, all of whom come under the overall command of the Nato International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

Dr Fox said in the Commons: “If we are sending an extra battalion to Helmand to boost our forces, the Government must ensure it provides extra support and equipment, in- cluding more helicopters and proper armoured vehicles.”

He added: “Our troops deserve to have the kit they need to do the job asked of them.”

Dr Fox told The Times that he did not object to sending more troops to Afghanistan, but added that other Nato countries should also do so. “I want to see more Nato partners pulling their weight,” he said.

    600 more troops set to bolster frontline Afghan forces, Ts, 23.1.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2560930,00.html

Two British deaths

in 48 hours in Helmand

January 15, 2007
Times Online
Jerome Starkey in Kandahar

Another British soldier was killed and several others were seriously injured in fierce clashes with the Taleban in southern Afghanistan today.

The elite soldiers were part of an operation to storm an insurgent base in Helmand, when they were attacked by dozens of fighters from a series of dug-in positions.

A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, which commands British forces in Afghanistan, said: "ISAF soldiers were involved in a pre-planned operation against an insurgent base, when they were engaged from several insurgent positions.

"Close air support was requested and targeted the insurgents."

The injured soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to military hospitals, but the MoD last night refused to release details of their condition. It is understood one of the men was "critical".

The soldier’s death comes less than 48 hours after two British soldiers were killed in separate incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan and cements a bloody start to 2007, which military analysts hoped would be quieter in terms of casualties. The Taleban normally regroup in the winter, but British soldiers have adopted a policy of "taking the fight to them".

The attack began before dawn yesterday and lasted through the morning, as Apache helicopter gunships and fighter jets bombarded the Taleban positions. Allied bombers also dropped several 2000lb bombs on the compounds, as the soldiers battled their way to safety.

Two other ISAF soldiers, said by Afghan police to be Canadians, were wounded in a separate incident Monday when a patrol vehicle struck a remote-controlled roadside bomb in Kandahar province. And in the capital, Kabul, a rocket exploded near a secure UN compound.

Around 100 people were asleep in the building at the time. The rocket exploded mid-air, spreading debris around the compound but causing no injuries, UK spokesman Aleem Siddique said.

    Two British deaths in 48 hours in Helmand, Ts, 15.1.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2548601,00.html

British troops kill

up to 100 Taleban fighters

January 11, 2007
Times Online
David Byers and agencies

British troops claim to have wiped out up to 100 Taleban fighters and destroyed an enemy "regional headquarters" in Afghanistan in the Army's biggest single raid since it started policing the volatile Helmand province.

The Taleban compound, in the area of Kostay south of the town of Garmsir, was attacked during an operation lasting nearly four hours by around 100 British troops backed up by air support, the Army said in a statement today.

In what could be a significant advance for the Helmand operation, UK commanders said both buildings in the compound, which intelligence said housed between 60 and 100 Taleban fighters, were completely destroyed while no British casualties were reported.

NATO also claimed to have killed 150 Taleban fighters in a seperate battle in eastern Afghanistan, after they were spotted crossing from Pakistan.

In the British raid, which began at 3.30am today local time, troops from the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF), part of 3 Commando Brigade, supported by the Light Dragoons, crossed the Helmand river and took up positions around the Taleban compound.

Men on the ground were supported by jets and Apache attack helicopters with twin airstikes launched against the buildings.

Both attacks were direct hits, the UK forces said, with first reports suggesting there was no collateral damage to other buildings or civilians. The troops left the scene at around 7am.

Major Mike Geldard, who co-ordinated the operation from UK Task Force headquarters in Lashkar Gah, said it was not possible to say how many Taleban may have been killed but he said it was believed to be a significant number.

He said: "It was a very successful operation. This was probably the biggest action in Helmand we have conducted to date in terms of a pre-planned operation.

"We have been building up information about this target up for about two weeks. Through intelligence we were able to pinpoint these two locations that we considered to be a Taleban regional headquarters for the south of the province."

Meanwhile, in a seperate operation, a NATO statement claimed as many as 150 Taleban militants had been killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan.

The statement said that two groups of Taleban were monitored and tracked as they crossed the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and then attacked.

The Afghan defence ministry earlier estimated 80 fatalities, while Dr Muhammad Hanif, a Taleban spokesman, was quoted by agencies as saying that the figure of 150 Taleban fighters killed was "a complete lie". There was no independent confirmation of numbers.

British troops kill up to 100 Taleban fighters, Ts, 11.1.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2542678,00.html