Commandos tasked with flushing out Afghan fighters

British Royal Marine commandos were today preparing to deploy to Afghanistan as part of a major operation to help US forces flush out al-Qaida and Taliban fighters still holding out in the Afghan mountains.

The deployment - which will eventually total 1,700 men, making it the largest British war-fighting force to be sent overseas since the 1991 Gulf War - follows a specific request from the US for Britain’s elite mountain warfare troops to help crush the remnants of forces loyal to Osama bin Laden.

The British force will be built around 45 Commando, supported by 7 Battery of 29 Commando artillery regiment, equipped with light, 105mm guns - as well as Royal Engineers and logistics troops.

Around 250 troops from 45 Commando - including the headquarters company and the ‘‘Whisky’’ and ‘‘Zulu’’ companies - are already in theatre on board the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean and the rest are on high alert at their base in Arbroath, Scotland.

The deployment will take the total number of British Armed Forces personnel involved in the Afghan theatre - including those involved in the International Security and Assistance Force in Kabul - to around 6,400.

The British battle group - codenamed Operation Jacana - will operate as part of a US-led brigade under the overall command of the supreme US commander in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks.

Yesterday, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told a sombre House of Commons that the first marines, led by the 3 Commando Brigade commander Brigadier Roger Lane, will start arriving at the Bagram airbase within the next few days, although they will not begin operations until the middle of April.

Mr Hoon warned that the force could face casualties in the fighting.

‘‘It is important that the House is under no illusions about what this might mean. These troops are being deployed to Afghanistan to take part in war-fighting operations,’’ he said.

‘‘We will be asking them to risk their lives. Their missions will be conducted in unforgiving and hostile terrain against a dangerous enemy. They may suffer casualties.’’

Ministry of Defence officials remain anxious that they will not be drawn into an extended commitment. They expect the troops to be in theatre for three months with around 30 days spent on actual operations.

The deployment of the British force is intended to enable the US commanders to keep up the tempo of operations against the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, enabling them to relieve troops who have been fighting for weeks at high altitude in difficult mountain conditions.

There was opposition to the deployment from Labour’s own backbenches.

Alice Mahon, the Labour MP for Halifax, said: ‘‘Parliament has been given no information whatsoever about the situation there. And the truth is we just don’t know what is happening. Nobody knows how many civilians have been killed, if aid is getting through, or if women and children are still being starved to death.

‘‘Yet again Britain is to be cast in the role of America’s little poodle.’’

Defence author Mike Yardley sounded a cautionary note, saying: ‘‘This is a very sudden, significant and large deployment of troops, and it would appear to be indicative that something is amiss or not going according to plan.

‘‘And we have not been told precisely who the enemy is - are they elements of al Qaida, Afghan nationals or merely enclaves of rebellious tribesmen?

‘‘With such a significant deployment we ought to be told. Geoff Hoon says it’s going to be dangerous, one wonders what he knows that we don’t, and there is the ever present danger that we get sucked into a situation similar to the one the Soviets got sucked into.

‘‘You can get lost in those mountains up there, and there is always the danger of a long-running guerilla warfare situation.’’