BRITISH FORCES are to be pulled out of the Sangin district of Afghanistan – the scene of heavy UK casualties since the deployment of soldiers to Helmand province in 2006.
The UK government is announcing today that British troops are to be replaced by US soldiers as part of a reconfiguration of coalition forces in the area. Out of the 311 British service personnel to have died in Afghanistan, more than 100 were killed in Sangin.
Political sources said the change would be presented as part of a reorganisation of coalition forces in Helmand. Britain will concentrate on the centre of the province, leaving the north and south to the US.
There has been a long debate in the British military about whether holding Sangin is worth the cost in British casualties. It was argued that Britain did not need to hold Sangin, and that British intelligence had been unable to get a grip on the local tribal structure.
About a third of all British casualties in Afghanistan have been sustained in this area of operations, while only one tenth of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan are deployed there. The royal marines are currently holding the post.
One source said of the decision to withdraw: “I hope it will not be portrayed as a retreat. There may be people in the media who want to do that. It is a consolidation of UK forces so that we can get the proper density of UK forces in central Helmand.”
The US has been pouring extra troops into Helmand, making it easier for British forces to pull out of vulnerable outposts. But there has also been an admission that the British have been unable to crack the complex tribal structure in the area, making it hard to cut deals with key players and so protect UK forces.
The announcement of a British redeployment will raise questions about the whole Sangin operation from critics who believe the UK did not need to base its forces there in the first place.
US president Barack Obama and British prime minister David Cameron discussed the redeployment at a bilateral meeting in Toronto on the margins of the G20 summit. Mr Cameron has always been sceptical about the value of the Sangin deployment, and recognises it has undermined fragile UK support for the Afghanistan operation.
While in Toronto Mr Cameron reiterated a view he first expressed in opposition – that he did not believe UK forces will be in Afghanistan by the next election, due in 2015. – (Guardian service)