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UK hoping to end Afghan combat operations next year

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 27, IRNA -- The head of the British Army says that the eight-year war in Afghanistan has reached a “turning point” and is hopeful of ending combat operations next year.

“We expect the military conflict to trail off in 2011,” General Sir David Richards said while visiting British front-line forces for the first time since becoming Chief of the General Staff last year.

“The combat role will start to decline in 2011, but we will remain militarily engaged in training and support roles for another five years, and we will remain in a support role for many years to come,” he said.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph Saturday, Richards gave an upbeat assessment of the latest Operation Moshtarak offensive started two weeks ago.

“We are now seeing some very optimistic signs” in the US-led offensive, he said. British forces had helped to “turn the tables” on the Taliban, he said.

Britain’s army chief welcomed the extra resources that had been made available by the government, while insisting that Taliban insurgent had been forced to giive “serious consideration” about continuing the fight.

“The Taliban is now beginning to realise that they can lose this war, which was not the view they had a year ago. We have to reinforce the view that they can, and will, be beaten,” he said.

The number of British troops in Afghanistan dropped as low as 300 within months of the overthrow the Taliban regime in 2001, but has more than doubled to 9,500 since being deployed in Helmand province in 2006, while suffering record casualties.

Richards provoked controversy just before taking up his post as Chief of the General Staff, when he warned that Britain’s mission in Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years in an evolving role of providing governance, development or security.

In his interview, he admitted that British forces have been deprived of key equipment and have been “holding our own in very hard circumstances for years,” but said that “for the first time we have the resources we have been seeking.”

The mounting pressure from the public to withdraw British forces from Helmand was “recognition that we were not getting it right,” Richards said, suggesting that “if we get it right the pressure will diminish rapidly.”

But he also warned of the dangers of failure in Afghanistan and the implications it would hold.

“I do not think we can afford to fail in Afghanistan because of the intoxicating effect failure will have on those militants who oppose democracy and our freedoms,” he said.

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End News / IRNA / News Code 983803