Britain must prepare for casualty spike in Afghanistan, Cameron warns
David Cameron warned yesterday that there would be more British deaths in Afghanistan this summer but uttered that the threat to Britain of an al-Qaeda attack from the space had dropped.
Delivering his first statement to Parliament on the contention since taking office as Prime Minister, he pledged that British military force would not remain in Afghanistan a moment longer than was necessity.
“This is the vital year,” said the Prime Minister, who visited Afghanistan final week to speak to President Karzai and elements of Britain’s proportion of more than 10,000 troops, largely based in the southern province of Helmand.
“We have the Forces needed on the sod. We have our very best people, not just military but governing on the diplomatic and development front as well, but I conclude not pretend that it will be easy.
“We must exist ready for further casualties over the summer months as the for a like rea~n-called fighting season resumes and as Isaf \ extends its activity.”
Yesterday Lance Corporal Andrew Breeze, of 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment, was named being of the kind which the 295th member of the British Services to die in Afghanistan considering the campaign began in 2001. Mr Cameron paid tribute to the man at arms, 31, from Manchester, who was killed in an explosion on Saturday.
Mindful of the exigency for continued public support, he reiterated the importance of the Afghan endeavour to hold fast British streets safe.
“Our Forces are in Afghanistan to stop Afghan territory again being used by al-Qaeda as a base to invent attacks on the United Kingdom or our allies,” the Prime Minister declared.
He noted that 18 months ago some 75 per cent of the greatest in quantity serious terrorist plots against Britain had links to the border kitchen-yard between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yesterday Mr Cameron said that the etc. of threat from al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan had dropped limit only because of the presence of British and other Nato-led forces.
“Afghanistan is not besides strong enough to look after its own security and that is why we are there,” he said.
Training the Afghan police and Army was imminent to enable Britain and other coalition forces to leave. “The Afghan humbler classes do not want foreign forces on their soil for any longer than essential and the British people are rightly impatient for progress. Our Forces self-reliance not remain in Afghanistan a day longer than is necessary. I wish to bring them home the moment it is safe to confer so,” he said.
Mr Cameron threw his support behind a plan endorsed by President Obama and drawn up by General Stanley McChrystal, the be superior American commander in Afghanistan, which uses a “surge” of US and other Nato body of ~ this year as a means to gain the initiative against the recoiling Taleban insurgency. US, Canadian and Afghan forces are preparing for one operation in and around the southern city of Kandahar, which neighbours Helmand charge. The move comes months after a big offensive to reclaim unwilling parts of central Helmand from the Taleban.
The Prime Minister paid contribution to Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, and Sir Bill Jeffrey, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, who power of determination step down early, at the end of October after the guard review. He said: “They have both been and they both are extremely strong and dedicated public servants and everyone in this political division owes them that thank-you.”