BRITAIN is to deploy its biggest contingent of paratroopers and special forces since the second world war in a bid to crush the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Ministers are to send 3,000 paratroopers, including the entire Parachute Regiment, to southern Afghanistan in the spring, as well as trebling the number of special forces in the country.
This is a big mobilisation to counter another predicted Spring offensive from the bad guys.
It will be the first time in the regiment’s history that all four para battalions, including its reservists, have fought together on the same battlefield. The number of UK special forces personnel will rise to more than 800 and will include the bulk of the Special Forces Support Group, which is largely comprised of paratroopers.
Hence the pull-out from Iraq- Brown, for all his faults, is sending some of Britain's best, in force, to fight in Helmand province. Concentrating these combined forces there is sure to have an effect.
The plan will see the current force of 7,000 British troops return from Afghanistan and a total of 8,000 sent out, bringing together the army’s most battle-hardened elite. Officers admit that, with 81 killed and more than 250 wounded, the Taliban have provided some of the fiercest resistance seen since the Korean war.
Fighting which the British media is, by and large, ignoring. The only mention the troops get on the news is when one of them is killed. It's shameful.
UK special forces will also concentrate for the first time solely on southern Helmand and will be expected not only to target the Taliban but also the drug barons funding them. The RAF will increase the number of aircraft in the country, adding Tornado and Typhoon ground attack planes to its existing Harrier squadrons.
In short, the Taliban's Spring offensive is doomed.
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