300th British death prompts calls to leave Afghanistan

BRITAIN announced its 300th death in Afghanistan yesterday, prompting Prime Minister David Cameron to pledge he will withdraw troops as soon as the war-torn state can handle its own security.

The Royal Marine, from 40 Commando, was injured in a blast in the Sangin area of Helmand Province on June 12.

He died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Sunday with his family at his side.

The grim landmark comes during a year which has already seen the second-highest number of British fatalities since operations began in 2001 — 55 — and amid signs that most Britons want troops to be pulled out.

Cameron said Britain was “paying a high price” in Afghanistan and that people “should keep asking why we are there and how long we must be there”.

“The truth is that we are there because the Afghans are not yet ready to keep their own country safe and to keep terrorists and terrorist training camps out of their country,” he said.

“But as soon as they are able to take care and take security for their own country, that is when we can leave.”

Britain has around 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making it the second largest contributor after the United States to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Its troops are based in the troubled southern Helmand province, battling Taliban insurgents and training local security forces.

The death toll in Afghanistan has risen steadily since 2006 and the number of fatalities surged in 2009, when 108 troops died, many killed by makeshift bombs.

The spike followed the launch of Operation Panther’s Claw in the build-up to Afghanistan’s presidential elections.

As the operation tried to shift from front-line fighting towards training local Afghan forces, the death toll did not slow up as new threats emerged.

Cameron warned last week that Britain “must be ready for further casualties over the summer months” and described 2010 as “the vital one” for overcoming the Taliban insurgency.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has made Afghanistan its top foreign policy priority but has begun to talk of eventual troop withdrawals, without giving any timetable.

Cameron visited Afghanistan earlier this month, holding talks in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and visiting troops at their main Camp Bastion base in Helmand.

He ruled out increasing Britain’s troop commitment and called for quicker progress to bring troops home.

There are increasing calls in Britain for troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan.

A BBC opinion poll in February found that 64% of Britons think the war cannot be won, while other polls have suggested growing support for a troop withdrawal.

Following news of the 300th fatality, Defence Secretary Liam Fox echoed Cameron by saying he hoped to “bring our forces home” from Afghanistan once Afghans can provide sufficient security and governance for themselves.

“The last nine years have seen British forces at the forefront of the campaign, for the last five working hard in one of the most challenging areas of the country building Afghan capacity to secure and govern their own country — a process which ultimately will allow us to bring our forces home,” he said.