Afghan mission 'could last 40 years'

The new head of the British Army is warning that Britain’s mission in Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years.

General David Richards, who becomes Chief of the General Staff later this month, said in a newspaper interview: “I believe that the UK will be committed to Afghanistan in some manner – development, governance, security sector reform - for the next 30 to 40 years.”

In his interview with The Times, Gen Richards said troop involvement should be needed only in the medium term and the role of the Army would evolve.

And he added that the focus now should be on the expansion of the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police.

“Just as in Iraq, it is our route out militarily, but the Afghan people and our opponents need to know that this does not mean our abandoning the region,” he said.

“We made this mistake once. Our opponents are banking on us doing it again, and we must prove them wrong."

His comments came as the UK Ministry of Defence announced three Paras died when their vehicle came under attack in the country. They are expected to be named today.

The soldiers, who were working with special forces, died after their Jackal armoured vehicle was hit by an explosion north of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province early on Thursday afternoon.

They were carrying out a routine security patrol with Afghan security forces when the vehicle was struck by the blast and came under small arms fire, the Ministry of Defence said.

A fourth member of the patrol was injured and remains in a critical condition. Their families have been informed.

The deaths took the number of British troops who have died in Afghanistan since operations began in October 2001 to 195. A record 22 were killed last month.

Meanwhile, the new Nato secretary general said yesterday that more troops were needed if the mission in Afghanistan was to be successful.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Nato would need to step up military efforts alongside increased civil reconstruction to secure peace.