More helicopters for troops - call

Jul 22 2009

A Government minister has risked inflaming the row over support for troops in Afghanistan by insisting they do not have enough helicopters.

Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown - who is standing down at the end of this week - said: "We definitely don't have enough helicopters," and added that "mobility" is crucial for the dangerous operations being undertaken.

The military top brass has been dropping increasingly heavy hints that it is unhappy with troop levels and equipment for the fierce combat in Helmand province that has now claimed 18 British lives this month.

Until now, Gordon Brown and other ministers have insisted that the military has all the resources it needs.

But in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Lord Malloch-Brown said: "We definitely don't have enough helicopters. When you have these modern operations and insurgent strikes what you need, above all else, is mobility."

The minister went on to admit that the public had not been prepared for an increase in the intensity of the campaign.

"We didn't do a good job a month ago of warning the British public that we and the Americans were going on the offensive in Helmand," the peer said. "This is a new operation; the whole purpose is to win control. These deaths have happened... after we chose to go on the offensive."

Lord Malloch-Brown also controversially suggested that the Taliban may have to contribute to a future Afghan government for there to be peace in the region.

Elements of the insurgents' "support group" may have to be invited back into "the political settlement" as a price of victory, he said.

The minister also risked further angering Downing Street by claiming that Gordon Brown's political future looks "incredibly bleak".