Officer hails Afghan 'progress'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7043136.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A British Army commander has praised his troops for helping to bring about a "more normal pattern of life" in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Lt Col Stuart Carver from the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, said they had "taken the fight to the enemy" during their six-month tour of duty.

In a letter to his local newspaper, he said witnessing reconstruction projects was the "real" success.

Nine members of the regiment, nicknamed the Vikings, have died since March.

In a letter to the Eastern Daily Press, Col Carver said: "When we arrived in March many commentators were claiming the war was already lost, but the change in the nature of operations over the six months has been astonishing.

"The Taleban have been beaten back and dislodged from their comfort zones in the Green Zone of the River Helmand because the Vikings have taken a determined fight to the enemy."

'Ferocious combat'

He added that troops had been involved in some of the most ferocious close-quarter combat the British Army has ever seen, as well as dealing with challenging terrain and temperatures exceeding 50 degrees celsius.

He said: "The real measurement of success has not been the numeric destruction of our foe but the embryonic beginning of reconstruction projects and the return to a more normal pattern of life, particularly in the vital town of Sangin."

He said that the 600 men and women of the battalion represented the "best of East Anglia", and that they had risked life and limb to make Afghanistan a safer place and win the trust of the local population.

Fifty-seven soldiers from the regiment, who are due to return to the UK next week, have also been wounded in battle.

Col Carver said: "There will not be a town in East Anglia that does not know someone who has been injured."

A memorial fund has been established to provide assistance to Royal Anglian soldiers who have been seriously wounded and help to the families of those killed.