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| Afghanistan |
| UK preparing search and destroy operations against Taliban |
| 2006-04-16 |
| British troops will be ordered to conduct "seek and destroy" operations in southern Afghanistan, according to documents seen by the Sunday Telegraph. The plans, which form part of a briefing document for senior officers, have revealed that troops will take part in missions to hunt down and kill insurgents, despite an explicit government assurance that this would not happen. The revelation has led to allegations from serving officers and MPs that the Afghanistan deployment is already facing so-called "mission creep", with troops being ordered to conduct operations that were not part of the original- plan. Under the heading "Deep Manoeuvre Effects", the document states that the troops will "find and track insurgents, interdict and disrupt opposition sanctuaries and locations and defeat (eventually)", which, according to one source, is an accurate description of a "seek and destroy" operation. The plans, which formed part of a presentation to Royal Marine officers, state that the most dangerous operations will take place in the Taliban's former heartland near the country's southern border with Pakistan, a lawless area notorious for producing a large proportion of Afghanistan's opium and heroin. The information within the documents appears to contradict statements made by John Reid, the Defence Secretary, to the House of Commons in January, when he said that British troops were not going to Afghanistan "to wage war or carry out seek and destroy" operations that the Americans had been mounting. Instead, he said British troops would help to train the Afghan security forces, assist with the reconstruction and support anti-narcotics -operations. Last night, Liam Fox, the Tory shadow defence secretary, called on Mr Reid to explain to Parliament why British troops would be taking part in combat operations when he had stated they would be mostly involved in reconstruction efforts. British troops have already begun to arrive in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick - Britain's involvement in the multinational operation - but the main bulk of the 3,300 from 16 Air Assault Brigade, which is largely composed of paratroopers, will not be in a position to conduct operations for several weeks. The Paras are due to be replaced by marines from 3 Commando Brigade, who will begin deploying to Afghanistan in October, but the plans also reveal that the marines will be taking twice as many fighting troops as the Paras. While 16 Air Assault Brigade will deploy to Afghanistan with one battle group, the commando brigade will deploy with two battle groups of 1,200 men each, based around 42 and 45 Commando, raising fears that the Army is not sending enough troops to Afghanistan to deal with the threat facing them. The Sunday Telegraph revealed in February that the Lt Gen David Richards, the commander of the Nato allied rapid reaction corps, wanted to take two battle groups of 1,200 men each so that one could act as a reserve force which would be used only in an emergency. But military planners at the Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood decided such a force was unnecessary. British commanders believe the main threat to troops will be from suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices such as car bombs. On Friday, three soldiers were injured in a suicide attack in Helmand when an insurgent drove a booby-trapped station wagon into a military convoy. Last week, Gen James Jones, Nato's most senior commander in Europe, said that the drug cartels operating in Helmand province posed as big a threat to international troops as the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Mr Fox said the public was not being given the full facts by the Ministry of Defence. He said: "If British troops are going to be involved in seek and destroy missions, then John Reid needs to return to the Commons and explain why we were given such misleading information." Patrick Mercer, the shadow homeland security minister and a former Army commanding officer, added: "It is clear from these plans that mission creep is going to occur once extra combat troops arrive. The Government has got to come clean on this and explain its real intentions in Afghanistan." |
| Posted by:Flelet Spavinter3070 |
| #4 heh heh |
| Posted by: 6 2006-04-16 19:24 |
| #3 Taxes of the 'intelligent one' at work... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2006-04-16 11:26 |
| #2 Next stop: London. |
| Posted by: Perfessor 2006-04-16 09:22 |
| #1 Oh no! You mean they'll have to be like soldiers and use their training and weapons to fight bad guys? Oh the horror! Surely they didn't join the military to fight! This calls for an immediate investigation! Good catch, Telegraph! Good Griefinessiosity. Take your soma. Let these folks do what they do and keep your silly beaks out of matters beyond your ken. |
| Posted by: Theretch Flineck9427 2006-04-16 04:15 |