Five soldiers killed in Afghanistan
It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence has confirmed the deaths of five soldiers in southern Afghanistan. Three of the soldiers were from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police. The soldiers were all killed as a result of gunshot wounds sustained in an attack in the Nad e-Ali district of Helmand province during the afternoon of 3 November 2009. Click here to read more.
Calls for phased withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan
Various newspaper articles have reported that a member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's intelligence and security watchdog believes that there should be a phased withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and that the billions of pounds that would be saved should be redirected to defending the UK against terror attacks by Al-Qaeda.
Denying international terrorists bases from which to launch attacks against Britain and the rest of the world is a key element of Britain's national security strategy. For Britain, and the other 42 nations of the UN-mandated international coalition involved in Afghanistan, to pull out without sufficiently stabilising the country and training and mentoring Afghan security forces would undermine our security and enable that threat to re-emerge emboldened and revitalised.
Working to address the threat of terrorism at source, and improving Britain's security at home, are two sides of the same coin and we must continue to do both to best ensure our security. The UK has done a huge amount domestically on countering terrorism. By 2011 we will be spending £3.5bn every year on counter-terrorism. In recent years we have increased the number of police personnel dedicated to counter-terrorism work by 70 per cent, and the Security Service has doubled in size.
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