Britain is to withdraw its 1,000 troops from the Sangin region of Afghanistan where they have suffered heavy losses and allow US forces to take charge there, Defence Secretary Liam Fox said today.
Prime minister David Cameron, who has made Afghanistan his foreign priority, also confirmed that he wanted to bring British combat troops home within five years.
Sangin, a valley in the north of Helmand province, has been one of the deadliest areas for British forces, accounting for about a third of the 312 British dead in the nine-year war.
The British military describes Sangin as an area with deep Taliban affiliation, riven by tribal conflict and a major centre for opium production.
Mr Cameron, who took office in May, said it was time for a push in Afghanistan so that Afghans could ultimately take charge of their own security.
"The plan we have envisages making sure that we wouldn't be in Afghanistan in 2015," he told parliament. "It's time to maximise the pressure now."
The British soldiers who are leaving Sangin will focus on operations in central Helmand where they will work with Danish and Estonian allies, Fox said.
Around 300 troops from a reserve battalion based in Cyprus will temporarily reinforce central Helmand until the changes take effect later this year.
Lieutenant-General David Rodriguez, commander of ISAF's Joint Command in Afghanistan and deputy commander of US forces there, said the British move would simplify the structure with the British concentrated in the northern part of the Central Helmand valley and US Marines in other parts of Helmand.
"It will clean up the command and control and will continue to build on the gains in the Sangin area that the Brits have done over the last several years ...," he said, briefing reporters at the Pentagon in a video conference.
Nearly all of Britain's 9,500 troops in the country are based in Helmand, scene of the war's worst fighting. June was the deadliest month for foreign troops since the conflict began.
British troops have already turned over other mountain valleys in Helmand to US Marines who arrived in large numbers in the province last year. More US forces are moving into southern Afghanistan as part of surge strategy that will bring the number of foreign troops in the country to 150,000.
British military spokesman Major General Gordon Messenger acknowledged the significance of Sangin to British troops.
"There is an attachment of the British army and the Royal Marines to Sangin which is borne of spilt blood, a great deal of endeavour and some pretty tough sacrifices that have been made," he told reporters.
Reuters