Officers warn of British troops' plight

[cal04]

· Frontline messages tell of Afghanistan casualty rate
· Forces 'need helicopters and reinforcements'

British troops in Afghanistan are exhausted and desperately short of helicopters, and there is no sign that the casualty rate will fall, according to accounts yesterday from officers on the frontline. The reports, including a leaked email describing the RAF as "utterly, utterly useless", put the government under fresh pressure over whether it adequately prepared British troops for operations in the hostile south of the country.

The insights threw into dramatic relief recent comments by military commanders, echoed by the defence secretary, Des Browne, about the dangers facing British soldiers engaged in almost daily contact with Taliban forces.

It was revealed yesterday that a major from 3 Para, James Loden, described British forces as desperately short of reinforcements and helicopters and berated the RAF for being "utterly, utterly useless". He referred to an attack when the pilot of a Harrier fighter bomber fired phosphorus bombs closer to British troops on the ground than the enemy. "A female Harrier pilot 'couldn't identify the target', fired two phosphorus rockets that just missed our own compound so that we thought they were incoming RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), and then strafed our perimeter missing the enemy by 200 metres," Maj Loden said.

The major also referred to the death last month of Corporal Bryan Budd in Sangin, to the north of Helmand province, and his colleagues' efforts to save the dying man during an intense ground battle. He described two junior colleagues, who appeared "very frightened and slow to react". He said his men were exhausted and at times - such as over Cpl Budd's death - were reduced to tears. The major's emails were leaked to Sky News.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1879302,00.html

[JohnyCanuck]

1. What was the matter with that RAF pilot?

If she couldn't find the Taliban, surely there were some Canadians around she could have bombed.

[bhikkhu]

2. Phosphorus Bombs?

So, the British are using white phosphorus bombs as weapons in Afghanistan?