ianstone
05-20-2010, 12:13 PM
UK: UK troop plans to withdraw from Helmand dropped
London, (IRNA): A US proposal for British troops to withdraw from Helmand province in southern Afghanistan into neighbouring Kandahar has been scrapped, it was reported on Friday.
The majority of Britain’s 10,000 troops in Afghanistan are deployed in Helmand but are now dwarfed by a 20,000-strong American force sent as reinforcements in the recent US surge.
According to the Times newspaper, the US had wanted Britain to move its troops to Kandahar to allow US Marines to take over sole control of Helmand.
As an inducement, Britain was said to have been guaranteed the top command post in Kandahar, which would ensure that a British general would still have had influence over key tactical decisions in the region.
But General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of American and Nato forces in Afghanistan, has confirmed that British troops, which has suffered increasing fatalities in Helmand, were not being transferred.
“There is no planned deployment of British Forces from Helmand to Kandahar,” McChrystal told a Pentagon press conference on the issue on Thursday.
The Times said that there was concern that such a move would be construed by the public as a defeat for the troops — echoing the perceived humiliation suffered by Britain in the Iraqi city of Basra after the last 500 troops based there were pulled out in 2007.
But there was said to be divisions among Armed Forces chiefs in London on the transfer, with some British commanders insisting there was no comparison between Basra and Helmand and that the shift to Kandahar made military sense.
“The US Marines prefer to operate on their own and they now have far more personnel in Helmand than we do,” one senior British source said.
The reported dispute come as Britain’s new foreign secretary William Hague was travelling to Washington Friday for his first talks with US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, with Afghanistan on top of the agenda.
It appears we are staying a little longer, guys ?
London, (IRNA): A US proposal for British troops to withdraw from Helmand province in southern Afghanistan into neighbouring Kandahar has been scrapped, it was reported on Friday.
The majority of Britain’s 10,000 troops in Afghanistan are deployed in Helmand but are now dwarfed by a 20,000-strong American force sent as reinforcements in the recent US surge.
According to the Times newspaper, the US had wanted Britain to move its troops to Kandahar to allow US Marines to take over sole control of Helmand.
As an inducement, Britain was said to have been guaranteed the top command post in Kandahar, which would ensure that a British general would still have had influence over key tactical decisions in the region.
But General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of American and Nato forces in Afghanistan, has confirmed that British troops, which has suffered increasing fatalities in Helmand, were not being transferred.
“There is no planned deployment of British Forces from Helmand to Kandahar,” McChrystal told a Pentagon press conference on the issue on Thursday.
The Times said that there was concern that such a move would be construed by the public as a defeat for the troops — echoing the perceived humiliation suffered by Britain in the Iraqi city of Basra after the last 500 troops based there were pulled out in 2007.
But there was said to be divisions among Armed Forces chiefs in London on the transfer, with some British commanders insisting there was no comparison between Basra and Helmand and that the shift to Kandahar made military sense.
“The US Marines prefer to operate on their own and they now have far more personnel in Helmand than we do,” one senior British source said.
The reported dispute come as Britain’s new foreign secretary William Hague was travelling to Washington Friday for his first talks with US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, with Afghanistan on top of the agenda.
It appears we are staying a little longer, guys ?