Now Zad, Musa Qala and Sangin have been overrun by insurgents
Makes a mockery of David Cameron’s declaration of ‘mission accomplished’
The devastating news was revealed in a series of emails
Insult for soldiers' families as rebels seize towns where troops pulled out
By MARK NICOL
5 July 2014
Huge swathes of Helmand Province, the area of Afghanistan where hundreds of British soldiers were killed in eight years of bloody fighting, are once again in the hands of the Taliban, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The districts of Now Zad, Musa Qala and Sangin have been overrun by insurgents after British troops withdrew to the security of Camp Bastion – the last remaining UK base in the province.
The return of the Taliban to hundreds of square miles of territory which was previously liberated by British soldiers makes a mockery of Prime Minister David Cameron’s declaration of ‘mission accomplished’ in Afghanistan.
The district of Now Zad has been recaptured since British troops withdrew from Camp Bastion
The devastating news was revealed in a series of emails written by a British Army intelligence officer serving in Afghanistan, which have been seen by this newspaper.
Writing from behind the wire at Camp Bastion, he described the UK mission as ‘nothing other than a failure and not something to be proud about’.
Last night, the Ministry of Defence described the situation on the ground in these districts as ‘fluid’.
But the intelligence officer revealed: ‘Almost 1,000 Taliban have captured Now Zad, the approaches and checkpoints surrounding the district centre, and most of the civilian population have left.
'WE FEARED THIS WOULD HAPPEN'
Royal Marine Richard Watson, 23, from Caterham, Surrey, was killed in a Taliban firefight in Now Zad in December 2006.
His father, who asked not to be named, said: ‘That the situation is going back to where it was when British Forces arrived is very frustrating.
My son and so many others paid the ultimate price. I feared this would happen when we left but it is still very disappointing.’
Marine Watson might have survived had more suitable armoured vehicles been available, a coroner said at his inquest in May 2008.
The hearing in Oxford heard that Watson, from Plymouth-based 42 Commando, was in a Pinzgauer utility vehicle when his patrol was attacked.
Recording a verdict of unlawful killing, Andrew Walker said: ‘This vehicle was not designed to be used in a situation where there may be incoming small-arms fire and was unsuitable for this type of patrol.’
'While in Musa Qala and Sangin the enemy has taken control of routes in and out of the towns.
‘The British response is to ignore what’s happening.
‘The message from London is that we’re only here to protect Bastion, to pack up the equipment and to get everything home. Nobody wants a scrap and we’ve lost the mindset to fight.’
The last UK troops sent to Afghanistan are due to come home by the end of this year, leaving the British-trained Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) to fend for themselves against the resurgent Taliban hordes.
For many years military experts have warned of a nightmare scenario of the Taliban returning to prominence in Helmand and across the whole of the country.
Now it appears that these fears are being realised.
But while almost all the 4,500 British troops still in Afghanistan are either confined to base or training Afghan troops, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) is continuing to take the fight to the Taliban, with the Marines suffering eight fatalities and more wounded in a series of clashes with the enemy in Helmand Province.
In his emails sent last week the British officer was disgusted by the different approaches of the UK and the US to the return of the Taliban.
‘The USMC is getting stuck in while we [the British] are packing up and marking Armed Forces Day at Bastion with a ministerial visit and a rugby team,’ he wrote, referring to members of Premiership team Saracens being flown in to boost the morale of troops.
He added: ‘The Ministry of Defence keeps ramming home the message that the mission has been a great success, that the enemy is completely on the back foot and that Helmand is in a much better state than when we arrived in 2006.
‘But I don’t think we can consider what we’ve done as anything other than failure, and we’ll be judged accordingly. This is not something to be proud about.
‘It is Ramadan now so everyone [the Afghans] is hungry and p***** off. Afterwards the smart money is on the Afghan soldiers going AWOL and returning to the north of the country where most of them are from, especially if they are not paid. Because they are not from Helmand the locals see them as foreigners, just as they do us.’
The Taliban also achieved a morale-boosting feat when their gunmen attacked an SAS helicopter carrying UK Special Forces troops near Lashkar Gah.
'BLAIR IS DIRECTLY ACCOUNTABLE'
Rifleman William Aldridge, 18, from Hereford, was killed in an ambush in Sangin in July 2009.
His mother Lucy Aldridge said: ‘The campaign was badly managed and politicians ignored the warnings of military commanders about what could go wrong.
'Tony Blair wanted another military campaign to divert attention from his disaster in Iraq.
‘I am saddened by the Taliban’s resurgence but not surprised.
‘As a result of Blair’s decision to promise to the Americans that we would provide security in Helmand, hundreds of British soldiers, including my son, were killed and as many lives destroyed.
'Blair should be held directly accountable for his policies and explain to the families or say sorry to the families for this disastrous decision.
‘The politicians did not listen to anyone and they forgot their history.’
This incident took place four months ago but has not been reported until now. It is referred to in the officer’s emails.
No SAS soldiers are believed to have been wounded, but the £40 million Chinook helicopter was badly damaged.
The officer wrote: ‘The SAS helicopter was brought down three miles from Lashkar Gah by heavy small-arms fire. The recovery operation was a complete cock-up. The RAF did not have a helicopter powerful enough to lift the wreckage so the Americans were called in. They used a Sea Stallion helicopter to recover the Chinook. The SAS were not impressed.’
The first British soldiers to see action in Now Zad and Musa Qala, where some 50 personnel lost their lives, and in Sangin were led by Colonel Stuart Tootal, the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment (3 Para).
In May 2006, hundreds of Col Tootal’s Paras, assisted by Gurkhas and soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment, took on the Taliban in these isolated but strategically significant districts.
For several bloody months the besieged and outnumbered troops fought rearguard actions and the Paras’ stubborn defence of their ‘platoon houses’ entered British military folklore.
These districts were defended with equal courage by other British regiments and Royal Marines but by the time the last soldier marched out of Sangin, around 100 UK personnel had lost their lives there, many of them shot by snipers or blown up by deadly improvised explosive devices.
From 2010, British troops continued fighting but focused more of their resources on training the Afghans to take the lead against the Taliban.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said last night: ‘Afghan security forces have been responsible for security across Afghanistan since last summer and have proved themselves capable on many occasions.
‘We are aware of reports of heavy fighting in northern Helmand, but it would be wrong to comment further on a fluid situation.
‘In the same way as our coalition partners, UK personnel continue to conduct force protection missions in support of the ANSF while working towards the end of combat operations later this year.’
'I LOST MY SON... BUT FOR WHAT?' SAYS SOLDIER'S MOTHER
Private James Prosser, 21, from Cwmbran, South Wales, died in an explosion in Musa Qala in September 2009.
His mother Sarah Adams said: ‘It was all for nothing.
'The Taliban said they would come back and they have done – they were just waiting for us to leave.
Private James Prosser, from 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh, who was killed in the Musa Qaleh district
'This is hard to take knowing all that has been lost.’
Mrs Adams added: ‘I feel that I have lost James, but for what?
'Men have sacrificed their lives or been injured physically and mentally, and we have gained nothing. I cannot understand why the MoD cannot see it for themselves.
British Reconnaissance Force (BRF) 52 Brigade 4/73 Battery laying down fire on Taliban position in Musa Qala
'We are not leaving Afghanistan better and it may become worse, just like Iraq.
'But to the Government it is just numbers and they don’t care. All they have sacrificed is money.
‘The Government is not willing to say that they have made mistakes or apologise. They think it has been a success.
‘To blatantly lie to the whole country and to those families who lost loved ones is just horrific.’
British commander: This means campaign failed
by Stuart Tootal Former commander of 3 Para
Colonel Stuart Tootal DSO, 43, led 3 Para Battle Group into Afghanistan's Helmand Province in 2006
Sangin, Musa Qala, Now Zad: the reports that the Taliban have retaken ground that was so hard fought for calls into question what it was Britain’s Servicemen died for far from home in these places.
The men under my command fought and became casualties of a barbaric enemy, and the IEDs that claimed so many lives and left others maimed for life.
More than 400 British lives have been lost in Afghanistan over the campaign and billions of pounds have been spent.
Now the nation must ask whether our long campaign in the troubled country of Afghanistan has been worth it.
I led the first UK battlegroup into Helmand in 2006. Eight years ago 3 Para’s mission was heralded as a peace support operation. The official aspiration was that there would be little or no fighting.
But the Taliban had no such notion. The consequence was that we became engaged in a level of combat not experienced by the British Army since the Korean War in the 1950s.
By 2009, although late in the day, the mission was finally on the right track. Greater numbers of troops and better equipment began to defeat the insurgency.
However, the political decision to quit Afghanistan had already been taken.
Now the return of the Taliban to the districts in Helmand where we fought is a sign the campaign has failed. We may be going back to where we were before I led 3 Para in, back in 2006.
There have been gains. Afghan troops facilitated the recent presidential elections.
In Helmand, more than 130,000 children are now in education, including 30,000 females – an unthinkable situation under the Taliban – and 84 per cent of the population now have access to healthcare.
British troops keep watch at a checkpoint, where a man shot and killed three British soldiers
Yet with the resurgence of violence, the security situation remains fragile. Undoubtedly, the Taliban will be redoubling their efforts as Nato troops end their mission, while the Afghan army remains a nascent force.
Though near its end, the UK and US mission in Afghanistan is not yet over and it is too soon to judge how successful they will have been.
The crucial question is which other areas will return back into the hands of the Taliban.
I doubt that Kabul would fall to the Taliban, as it did in 1996, as the forces ranged against them are too strong.
However, the collapse of Afghan government following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the recent events in Iraq must provide a worrying portent for the future.
I believe Britain and the US rushed for the exits too soon, we should have stayed longer – but as 75 per cent of the UK population did not support the operation, that had to be taken into account.
The bottom line is that the Armed Forces of this country who fought, bled and died in Afghanistan did a remarkable job in the most difficult of circumstances.
I would like to think 3 Para set the standard, but it is a benchmark that has been met by all units of the British Army and Royal Marines that followed us.
It is a record our American allies would immediately attest to, and it should give the people of this country great pride in the quality, courage and fortitude of its Servicemen and women.
But it must be a very difficult situation for British soldiers and US troops when one is more actively withdrawing and detaching themselves.
Political decisions have been taken and military commanders must obey orders.
I know that UK forces would rather be taking the fight to the enemy than spending their days packing up Camp Bastion.
That, of course, would mean the Taliban not regaining power in a land that claimed so many British lives.
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