Army captain condemns conflicting loyalties and mistakes in war on heroinAn army officer who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan has branded many local police in the war-torn country tribal militias rather than a national crime fighting force.Captain Douge Beattie, who once fought off Taliban fighters with his bayonet in Helmand province, also said the [...]
Afghanistan could control security in some of its provinces by the end of 2010, a summit on the country’s future says.
International conference in London sees coalition powers and regional allies take ‘decisive step’ towards country’s stabilityWorld leaders meeting in London today have agreed on a timetable for Afghanistan’s own forces to take over security duties in the country’s more peaceful provinces later this year and conduct most operations in more dangerous areas within three years.Afghanistan’s [...]
Prime Minister Gordon Brown sets a mid-2011 deadline for “turning the tide” in Afghanistan, at a 70-nation London summit.
Afghanistan’s president says leaders expect to emerge from today’s London conference with a ‘clear agenda’ for the next five yearsBritish troops could remain in Afghanistan for another 15 years, the country’s president Hamid Karzai said today.In a BBC interview before the start of the London conference on the future of Afghanistan, Karzai said that although [...]
Police say ‘all eventualities’ taken into account when planning security for London conference co-hosted by Gordon BrownThe Metropolitan police said that it had taken “all eventualities” into account when planning security for tomorrow’s conference on Afghanistan.The one-day meeting – which will be co-hosted by Gordon Brown, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and the UN secretary [...]
Lance Corporal Daniel Cooper, one of his battalion’s ‘great characters’ hit by roadside bombA British soldier killed by an explosion while on foot patrol was named by the Ministry of Defence today as Lance Corporal Daniel Cooper from 3rd Battalion The Rifles.Cooper was trying to clear a path in an area south of the Sangin [...]
• Attempt to wrest Helmand areas from Taliban control• Move comes on eve of peace talks in LondonBritish and other Nato troops are preparing a major offensive in southern Afghanistan aimed at seizing areas in Helmand province still under Taliban control, the British commander in the region said today.Major General Nick Carter said the operation [...]
General Stanley McChrystal hints that negotiations in London could see Taliban leaders join new Kabul governmentThe US military’s surge in Afghanistan could counter a resurgent Taliban and pave the way for a political deal that could end the war, Nato’s commander in the country said today, before a flurry of diplomatic activity to find a [...]
A British soldier killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan is named as a 19-year-old rifleman on his first tour of duty.