Tough task for troops in Taleban fight

By Caroline Wyatt Defence correspondent, BBC News

The Taleban is increasingly using suicide bombs and roadside devices

Cpl Sarah Bryant was the first British woman soldier to die in Afghanistan, but five have died during operations in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

She and her colleagues were in a convoy on patrol with the Afghan policemen they had been mentoring, when their vehicle – believed to be a Snatch Land Rover or weapon-mounted WMIK version – was blown up by a mine.

Specialist positions

The overwhelming majority of troops in Helmand Province – especially on the frontline, taking the most casualties – are men, but British servicewomen play a vital role in intelligence, the medical corps and the RAF, as well as in other specialist positions.

Women make extremely good intelligence officers – they listen, they hear, they have a different line of questioning Ashley Merry, Ex-Army officer

The Intelligence Corps does one of the most delicate jobs, collecting information on the Taleban and trying to win over local people to counter-insurgency efforts.

Former army officer Ashley Merry told the BBC women had a vital role to play in conflict zones: “We serve in all sorts of specialisations, except where, and I quote, ‘The primary duty is to close with and kill the enemy’.

“But of course, there are lots of support staff. Women make extremely good intelligence officers – they listen, they hear, they have a different line of questioning, and also it has to be said, there is the contribution that women make to their male colleagues.

“The men like having women around.”

The past 10 days in Afghanistan have illustrated clearly the difficulties of fighting the Taleban insurgency for British servicemen and women who need to remain a visible presence on the ground.

In order to win over the people of Helmand Province, and mentor the Afghan security forces, British troops need to be approachable – able to talk to and listen to local people.

That means continuing to go on foot patrol, and sometimes in less heavily-armoured vehicles, even though that may make them more vulnerable.

But the Taleban are capitalising on that, with increasing use of suicide bombs and roadside devices, rather than head-on confrontations with British forces in which Taleban fighters are heavily outgunned.

In a clear sign of that shift in Taleban tactics, when Britain first went into Helmand Province in 2006, just two of the 39 lives lost that year were due to explosives or roadside bombs.

In 2007, they accounted for seven of the 41 lives lost. This year, they have caused more than half of the 20 deaths so far – 12 in all.

Amyas Godfrey, a former army officer now with the Royal United Services Institute, says that the Taleban are adapting tactics used effectively by the insurgency in Iraq.

“IEDs [improvised explosive device] especially are an efficient way for the Taleban to ensure a steady stream of casualties without risking their own fighters, with a drip-drip effect on Nato and individual governments, seeing whether their resolve will last for another year, two years or five years with these sort of casualties.”

‘Great progress’

Although American forces have taken the most casualties in Afghanistan since 2001 – some 517 deaths in all – the UK has the second highest number – now 106 deaths – from a much smaller force.

Canadian troops, fighting in Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban, have also taken heavy casualties for their size of force.

They have lost 85 personnel, though the Danish troops serving within the Nato Isaf mission have taken the heaviest casualties in proportion to their troop numbers, losing 14 men.

Britain is due to send an extra 230 troops to Afghanistan, which will bring the numbers serving there up to 8,030.

While British commanders say the Taleban are being worn down, the past 10 days suggest that their ability to kill, maim and disrupt remains a very real threat indeed to Britain’s servicemen and women in Afghanistan, as well as to the Afghan people.

Mr Brown spoke earlier in the week of the need for Britain to be in Afghanistan, otherwise “Afghanistan would come to Britain.”

The aim of the mission is to ensure that Afghanistan cannot again become a failed state, or offer shelter to al-Qaeda and its allies from which to attack the west.

However, the latest deaths will focus more attention on Nato’s strategy in Afghanistan, and whether it really is succeeding in its aim of stabilising the country and routing the Taleban.

It also raises real questions over what kind of impact such casualty figures will have on public opinion in Britain and other nations.