UK troops in Afghanistan to move out of Sangin Skip to main content

UK troops in Afghanistan to move out of Sangin

British soldiers in Afghanistan Sangin has seen some of the fiercest fighting in recent UK military history
British troops in the Sangin area of Afghanistan's Helmand province are to be replaced by US forces, British Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said.

The UK has suffered its heaviest losses in the area, with 99 deaths since 2001.
About 1,000 Royal Marines are expected to leave and be redeployed to central Helmand by the end of 2010.
The military insists the move is a redeployment, now there are more US troops on the ground, but the Taliban are certain to portray it as a defeat.
Difficult questions Last month Britain handed over command in Helmand to a US general.
Maj Gen Richard Mills, of the US Marine Corps, assumed control of all Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops in Helmand on 1 June.

SANGIN PROFILE

  • Most dangerous place for foreign troops in Afghanistan
  • Nearly a third of Britain's more than 300 military deaths have been in and around the town
  • Difficult terrain for troops - warren of dirt tracks often too narrow for vehicles
  • Easy bomb-planting territory for Taliban and good cover for snipers
  • Mix of rival tribes complicates local politics
  • Northern Helmand district is at heart of opium-growing industry
Dr Fox told MPs Britain will concentrate on Helmand's busy central belt, leaving the north and south to the US.
More British troops will be sent to Helmand to help with the redeployment.
The logistic and security troops will come from the Theatre Reserve Battalion stationed at Episkopi in Cyprus, he said.
The Theatre Reserve Battalion for Afghanistan is currently provided by the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul said the deployment of the additional British troops to the area was intended to be purely temporary, while existing UK troops are moved from Sangin.
Dr Fox also told MPs a stable Afghanistan was "vital to national security" .
BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said the Ministry of Defence could be concerned it will be seen as a pull out or withdrawal by the British, with US forces bailing out UK troops.
This is a NATO exercise, it's not the British out there fighting separately to the Americans, the Polish, the Canadians, we're all out there together
Ian Sadler Father of soldier killed in Afghanistan
Conservative MP and former British army officer, Patrick Mercer, said the handover was a routine move and should under no circumstances be considered a retreat.
He told the BBC: "It's absolutely straightforward and normal in coalition warfare like this for units to serve under foreign command, but it's not necessarily desirable.
"There are now enough troops for this no longer to be necessary and any suggestion that British forces are being beaten out of Sangin or returning with their tails between their legs is not just disingenuous, it's actually disgusting."
Ian Sadler, whose son Jack, 21, died north of Sangin in December 2007, said the US takeover would allow British troops to "consolidate" and "build a better base... in a smaller area influence".
"This is a NATO exercise, it's not the British out there fighting separately to the Americans, the Polish, the Canadians, we're all out there together," he told the BBC.
'Very tough' Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British army, said it was likely that the number of deaths would increase to 400 but the coalition had to continue its commitment to Afghanistan.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the troops had been spread thinly and added that "inevitably made the small number of British soldiers like flies in a honey pot and we got into this cycle of fighting".
This reflects good practical military sense and we shouldn't allow emotion or misinterpretation to be put above that
Col Stuart Tootal
But he said it was important for the British public to understand why soldiers were still in Afghanistan to protect the UK's national security interests, and that the cost, "while very tough for the families who lose loved ones", was worth the price being paid.
Of the 312 UK deaths in Afghanistan since 2001, a third have taken place in Sangin, currently home to 40 Commando Royal Marines.
Col Stuart Tootal, who commanded the first UK battle group of of 1,200 soldiers sent into Sangin four years ago said the number of deaths that had taken place in Sangin meant there was a lot of "emotion" attached to the area.
He said: "It makes no sense for a logistic and command point of view to keep a British battle group away from its main brigade when it's now an American area and there are American troops to take over from them.
"This reflects good practical military sense and we shouldn't allow emotion or misinterpretation to be put above that."
Rival tribes Sangin is the latest part of the province to be handed over to US control after the town of Musa Qaleh in March and the Kajaki dam last month.
It has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting the British military has endured since World War II, and contains a mix of rival tribes.
It is also a volatile northern district at the heart of the opium-growing industry.
The UK's 8,000 forces in Helmand are greatly outnumbered by the 20,000 US Marines sent there by President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence has named a soldier who was killed on Monday by a roadside bomb in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province as Trooper James Anthony Leverett, 20, of the Royal Dragoon Guards.

BBC
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