British war role questioned as casualties rise

DEFENCE Secretary Bob Ainsworth defended Britain’s continuing military role in Afghanistan yesterday after five more British troops died over the weekend.

The latest fatalities took the British military death toll over the 200 mark as a poll found more than half the British public believe British troops should leave the country.

Ainsworth said progress was being made in the battle against Taliban insurgents, but added that British troops would remain in the country for some years to come.

A poll of 2,000 people for Sky News found that more than four in five (82%) wanted the government to do more to support Britain’s 9,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Over half (57%) said British troops should not be in Afghanistan, where British deaths now outnumber the toll from Iraq.

The Afghan conflict has now claimed the lives of 204 British army soldiers since 2002, 173 during combat.

“Over the next couple of years our mission will change,” Ainsworth told Sky News.

“We will see the Afghan national army growing in capability. We will still have to stay there, we will still be providing training and mentoring for some time to come.

“I genuinely believe that in the next couple of years we will see progress in Afghanistan. I think this is do-able, I think this is winnable, I think we have to back our troops and we have to stay with it.”

Troop deaths rose sharply in July as Britain supported an intensified campaign to improve security in Afghanistan ahead of national elections there, prompting criticism that troops were operating without sufficient protection.

Many soldiers died from improvised roadside bombs set by insurgents that Ainsworth said had become “tragically effective”.

He was speaking shortly before two of the latest British fatalities in Afghanistan’s Helmand province were named by the Ministry of Defence.

Private Richard Hunt, 21, from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh was the conflict’s 200th British military death.

Hunt, from Abergavenny in Wales, died on August 15 at a military hospital in Birmingham from wounds sustained last week in an explosion near Musa Qala.

Also named was Sergeant Simon Valentine, 29, of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who died the same day in an explosion while he was on foot patrol near Sangin.

Three other soldiers from Valentine’s battalion were killed in Sangin on Sunday and will be named later.