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| Afghan insurgents are 'weakened' | Afghan insurgents are 'weakened' |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell has said insurgents in Afghanistan have had their "command and control" weakened by Operation Panther's Claw. | |
| Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London Mr Rammell said insurgents had suffered "heavy losses" and had been split up. | Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London Mr Rammell said insurgents had suffered "heavy losses" and had been split up. |
| His speech comes a day after a report by MPs criticised elements of the operation in Afghanistan. | His speech comes a day after a report by MPs criticised elements of the operation in Afghanistan. |
| It said UK troops had been given too many tasks to perform. | It said UK troops had been given too many tasks to perform. |
| The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee said the military mission had failed to deliver on its promises as a result of the pressures placed on the troops deployed there. | |
| The committee of MPs said that "mission creep" had brought too many responsibilities, including fighting the drugs trade. | |
| It said the UK's deployment to Afghanistan's Helmand province was "undermined by unrealistic planning at senior levels, poor co-ordination between Whitehall departments and crucially a failure to provide the military with clear direction". | |
| MPs also said UK troops should abandon their attempts to tackle the drugs trade and focus instead solely on security. | |
| Drugs battle | |
| The report warns the security situation, particularly in the south, could be expected to remain "precarious for some time to come". | |
| The committee said government claims the Afghan drugs trade was a justification for the continued presence of British troops in Helmand were "debatable". | |
| Its chairman, Labour MP Mike Gapes, said: "This issue of counter-narcotics, the heroin poppies, is a serious problem but it is not the main issue that we face in Afghanistan. | |
| "The main issue is the security and the threat coming from, once again, becoming a terrorist base." | |
| Conservative leader David Cameron has said there is a "very strong case" for sending more UK soldiers to Afghanistan. | |
| He told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour that if military chiefs made a request for extra manpower, there would be good reasons to make that happen. | |
| And the new head of Nato, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said its priority must be the war in Afghanistan, including negotiations with moderate members of the Taliban. |