Blair ready to send ground troops into battle

Prime Minister Tony Blair was today poised to announce the deployment of British ground troops in Afghanistan before the onset of winter.

Downing Street said yesterday Mr Blair will be ‘‘completely straight’’ with the British public on what casualties to expect when troops go into action on the ground.

As the US-led bombing campaign on Taliban strongholds and terrorist warlord Osama bin Laden continued alongside more covert ground operations, the prospect of sending British troops into Afghanistan drew nearer.

Downing Street said it was likely the British contribution would be more than the support and refuelling operations undertaken so far and that the Government was in continuing discussions with the US about the use of ground forces.

In the clearest signal yet of an imminent deployment, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said the Government was engaged in ‘‘detailed discussions’’ with the US over the use of ‘‘overt’’ ground forces.

Mr Blair was holding another War Cabinet at Downing Street today. He returned to London last night after a weekend at Chequers.

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Paul Keetch said: ‘‘There may certainly be a case for deployment of British special forces in the Middle East. But there must also be a continuing presence of special forces in the UK.

‘‘We must remember that there is the possibility of a terrorist attack on the UK mainland. It was events on the US mainland which brought about the present engagement.

‘‘If there is a deployment of the bulk of our special forces, we must nevertheless retain a special force capability in the UK.’’