The UK's steady withdrawal from Afghanistan was under fresh scrutiny after insurgents killed a British soldier who went missing from the checkpoint where he was stationed.
His body was discovered hours later with multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the back of the head.
The disappearance of the soldier, from the 4th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, sparked a search operation by Nato forces, with commanders unsure whether he had been abducted as part of a carefully orchestrated plan, or had been chanced upon by insurgents outside the base in Nahr-e Saraj (South) district of Helmand province.
The episode coincided with a secret trip to Afghanistan by David Cameron, who was forced to cancel plans to visit the British base at Lashkar Gah in Helmand as surveillance aircraft, helicopters and hundreds of extra troops hunted for the missing soldier. Cameron had hoped to be in the province's capital city to visit troops ahead of the handover of the area to Afghan security forces later this month. On Wednesday he is expected to announce that another tranche of British soldiers will withdraw from Helmand – 450 will leave this year, and 500 more are likely to be sent home in 2012.
His visit, though, was overshadowed by the news from Checkpoint Salaang, a fortified compound in central Helmand where Afghan soldiers reported the Briton missing early on Monday.
"What happened was obviously a very disturbing incident," Cameron said. "I arrived here in Helmand province and said to the military: 'Whatever you do, don't worry about taking me around – throw everything you have got at trying to pick up this young man.'"
"The reason for me not going to Lashkar Gah was not about my security. It was literally, use everything you have got to try and deal with this.
According to sources, the soldier had just finished his shift on sentry duty at a vehicle checkpoint and was expected to return inside the base. Colleagues reported seeing him walking out of the checkpoint area and down a road, before losing sight of him. The Taliban claimed it had taken him, and said that there had been a battle between insurgent and British forces. These details were emphatically denied in London.
Hours later the soldier's body was found with gunshot wounds four kilometres from the checkpoint. He was the 375th Briton to have died in Afghanistan in the decade-long campaign. Military investigators are now trying to establish why the soldier left the checkpoint on his own – and if he was lured out in some way.
An MoD statement confirmed that the soldier had been a member of The Highlanders. "[He] was reported missing from an ISAF check point in the early hours of the morning and was later found dead following an extensive search of the area."
The spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel Tim Purbrick, added: "He had suffered gunshot wounds.His exact cause of death is still to be established and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and death are currently under investigation. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends."
Before the details of the death emerged, Cameron said the military campaign was now in a "new phase". He said there was increasing confidence in the Afghan army and police ability and that the insurgency, was now on the "back foot".
There have been questions about the deadline overly politicising the military campaign in Afghanistan — it will be in 2014 and the year before the next general election. The government has always said they have taken a "political judgment" but they have also been at pains to stress it is enabled by an improvement in the capability of the Afghan army and police and weakening in the insurgency.
But shortly after arriving into Afghanistan Cameron was informed that a British soldier had gone missing in one of the areas due to be handed over to control by local forces. The Taliban released a statement saying they had captured the soldier was discovered outside the military compound where he was based in the south of Helmand province. Helmand will pass into the control of local forces in the Autumn of next year.
The Ministry of Defence would not comment on any of the details surrounding the missing soldier but confirmed his next of kin had been informed he was missing. A senior military source, seeking to downplay any sense of sophisticated planning and threat, described the capture as an "opportunistic attack".The prime minister visited Camp Bastion in Helmand and intended to fly straight out again to Lashkar Gar to meet and the provincial governor . The Helmand town is regarded has made such good progress last month it was transferred over to control by the local Afghan forces and is regarded as a success story.
In interviews with travelling press, Cameron said he had personally insisted the Lashkar Gar trip be dropped: "It was absolutely the right thing to do. I just said when I got here, don't bother about flying me around Helmand province, just use all you have got to try and find that person."
He also disagreed that it would have any bearings on his chosen strategy for Afghanistan, saying: "Of course we are going to have challenges and problems right up until the end of the mission of course, it is a very regrettable incident."
He also said "in Helmand province the insurgency is on the back foot".
But he stuck to his fresh appraisal of the situation in Afghanistan and asked for people to remember the "big picture".
He added: "We are entering a new phase in this country.There will be an opportunity to bring some British soldiers home, we are talking relatively small numbers and over a period of time. There will continue to be incidents; the trick isn't that we have to have completely finished off the insurgency by the time we transition out, it's that the Afghan forces are going to be able to handle it."
In tandem with US president Barack Obama's decision that he will reverse by 2012 the 2009 surge in which he sent 33,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, Cameron has announced that all British fighting forces will be out by 2014. Four hundred and fifty troops will begin leaving Afghanistan next month out of the British total force of 9,500. These are mainly support officers but on Wednesday the prime minister is expected to tell parliament there will be a further withdrawal in the autumn, of around 500 troops, for the first time including frontline troops.
Cameron indicated there would not be a significant reduction for the next two summers, dubbed "fighting seasons" in military terms. He said: "You have the enduring number of 9,500. You're not going to see a radical change for the fighting season (summer) of next year. That's not what this is about." But he added: "2014 is a deadline – be in no doubt. This is a matter of judgment. It is my judgment that it is right. The British people and the British military deserve to have some certainty."
While Lieutenant Colonel Charles Page said the handing over of towns to local forces would be dependent on "conditions", this was put to the prime minister later and he maintained the deadline would stick irrespective of possible bad conditions.
In comments made to American troops and in interviews before the details of the soldier's disappearance emerged, Cameron and military sources stressed the drawdown decision was based on the improved "confidence and competence" of Afghan forces.
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