British troops move out of Helmand | UK news

• Jon Boone in Kabul
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  Friday 7 January 2011 15.22 GMT

• Article history

 

An Afghan patrol by British troops with the Household Cavalry, which has been deployed to Maiwand district in Kandahar. Photograph: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images

British troops have established a permanent presence outside Helmand province for the first time since 2006 in an effort to secure a key road that runs through one of Kandahar's most violent districts, according to US and UK officials.

Since mid-December troops from the Household Cavalry have been operating on a 12 mile stretch of Highway 1 in Maiwand district where they are overseeing patrols and checkpoints alongside soldiers from the Afghan army.

Maiwand is one of the last areas affected by the US troop surge. British troops were asked to oversee its western part so that US troops could be sent elsewhere in Kandahar province.

The UK's involvement in the province, which will continue for six months, has been kept quiet until now, in part because of sensitivities about British troops operating outside the area controlled by Task Force Helmand, the UK-led military mission in southern Afghanistan.

Substantial numbers of British pilots and support staff are based at Kandahar airfield and a portion of the UK force has acted as a roving air assault team across the south for years. But since 2006 the vast majority of UK soldiers have been concentrated in Helmand under British command.

After years of being the main international presence in what became known as Helmandshire, the UK's role has been reduced by a surge of thousands of US marines into the province and neighbouring Kandahar.

With so much UK blood and treasure spent in Helmand, British officials fought against American suggestions last year that UK forces should be entirely redeployed outside Helmand.

In the end the UK clung on to full authority over three districts: Nahr-e Saraj, Nad-e Ali and Lashkar Gah.

Under the arrangement in Maiwand, which neighbours the area under UK control, British troops fall under the authority of US-led Regional Command South.

"No boundaries have been permanently changed and RC South will still maintain all governance and development responsibilities in Maiwand," a US marine corps spokesman said.

During a visit to Afghanistan this week the British defence secretary, Liam Fox, insisted Britain was happy to operate outside Helmand and in a subordinate role.

"We want to be a good Nato partner and that's why we are on Route 1 at the moment," he said. "We don't see our bit of Helmand as being a unique British territory. We are here as part of Nato and people need to grasp that."

Maiwand is almost halfway between Helmand's regional capital of Lashkar Gah and Kandahar City. It represents the final element of a much-delayed strategy, first drawn up more than a year ago, to clear insurgents from the critical road that links southern Afghanistan's two major cities.

The British are not taking on an easy task in Maiwand, which was one of the last remaining Taliban strongholds to be tackled by US marines.

The Taliban were well entrenched in Maiwand – a district that in the 19th century was the scene of one of the most disastrous confrontations between British troops and Asian forces. Nearly 1,000 soldiers were killed at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880.

British and American officials have refused to say how many troops are stationed in Maiwand but said so far there had been few serious incidents or Taliban attacks.