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Taliban "energised" by troop deployment, says UK defence minister

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, July 8, IRNA
UK-Troops-Afghanistan
Defence Secretary Des Browne admitted Saturday that the presence of British troops in southern Afghanistan had provoked Taliban forces.

"It is certainly the case that the very act of deployment into the south has energized the opposition, and the scale of that opposition and the nature of that opposition became apparent when we were deploying," Browne said.

His admission comes after six British troops were killed in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan in the past month.

The killings have lead to calls by opposition MPs for the government to clarify the role of the new deployment of 3,300 troops amid fears that reinforcements may be needed, including extra air cover.

On Friday, former defence minister Doug Henderson suggested that British troops in Afghanistan should be withdrawn to their barracks until a clear political strategy had been agreed.

But in an interview with the Guardian, Browne insisted that the "objective is clear." It is to "let the writ of the Afghan government run in the south, against a background that these provinces have been largely lawless for three decades," he said.

The Taliban, drug warlords and militia, he said, had been left "to act with impunity and brutalize local communities."

The defence secretary also criticized comments by opposition MPs about "alleged confusion" of their role as putting troops on the ground at risk.

"If the message of confusion, or suggestion that in fact we are there to do something entirely different as a primary purpose is played back by the Taliban into local communities, then they (would) think the British troops are coming to starve them or attack them," he said.

This, the defence secretary warned, "is putting our soldiers at a level of unnecessary risk."
People who criticize "have to ask themselves whether they want us to do it at all," he said.

"We have always explained that this was going to be very, very difficult and dangerous, and we have also explained that the purpose was to create the security space for reconstruction of the country," he said.

The daily also quoted Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Tootal, the officer in charge of British troops in the region, as saying that the resistance was proving more difficult than expected.

"If we were honest, we didn't expect it to be quite so intense.

But at the same time, we have trained for it," Tootal was quoted as saying.

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