MPs challenge Brown over Afghanistan

LONDON – MPs voiced concern yesterday that a lack of helicopters was having ‘adverse consequences’ on Britain’s campaign in Afghanistan after Prime Minister Gordon Brown denied it was fuelling casualties.

A report from the influential parliamentary defence committee said a larger fleet would allow troops to undertake operations by air rather than on foot, which would make them more effective and offer the soldiers more protection.However, the prime minister repeated his insistence that forces had the resources and equipment they needed.British troops suffered their blackest 24 hours yet in Afghanistan last week when eight soldiers died during a major assault against Taliban fighters in southern Helmand province, bringing the toll this month to 15.Many of those killed have been hit by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that are hidden in the ground and are increasingly favoured by insurgents.’We believe that the size of the fleet is an issue (in the Afghan conflict), and are convinced that the lack of helicopters is having adverse consequences for operations today,’ the defence committee report said.Committee chairman James Arbuthnot added: ‘We are concerned that operational commanders find they have to use ground transport, when helicopter lift would be preferred, both for the outcome and for the protection of our forces.’The report called for an increase in the number of helicopters and training crews, arguing that upping the flying hours is no substitute for more aircraft.It emerged yesterdsay that the head of the army, General Richard Dannatt, had travelled in a US Black Hawk helicopter during a recent visit to troops in the troubled southern Afghan province of Helmand.’If I moved in an American helicopter it’s because I haven’t got a British helicopter,’ he said.Brown told MPs on Wednesday while he lamented the recent loss of life in Afghanistan during the assault, called Operation Panther’s Claw, ‘it’s not to do with helicopters.’And speaking before a parliamentary hearing yesterday, he insisted: ‘For Operation Panther’s Claw and for what we’re doing in Afhganistan we’ve provided the resources and equipment that are necessary.’In a sometimes testy exchange with MPs questioning him, Brown said there had been a 60 per cent increase in helicopter capacity in the last two years and there were now more crews to ensure the aircraft were better used.Many of the country’s’s 9 000 troops in Afghanistan are taking part in the operation against Taliban fighters in southern Helmand province ahead of presidential elections next month, and the US is engaged in a similar assault.The death toll for British troops in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 now stands at 184, surpassing the 179 dead in the Iraq campaign.The head of the US military, Admiral Michael Mullen, warned Thursday that Taliban militants in Afghanistan have grown more violent and better organised in recent years, and troops face ‘very difficult fighting’ ahead. – Nampa-AFP