SUCCESS in Afghanistan will require “courage and patience”, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth warned yesterday, as the conflict claimed the life of a seventh British serviceman in just seven days.
In a sombre assessment of the situation after eight years of military operations against the Taliban, Mr Ainsworth warned that more British lives would be lost in the fighting ahead.
However, he insisted that progress was being made and that it remained essential to ensure al-Qaida was denied a renewed foothold in the country from which to launch fresh terror attacks against Britain and the West.
His comments, in a keynote speech to the Chatham House foreign affairs think-tank, in London, came amid signs of disquiet within Whitehall at growing public dismay at the lengthening list of British casualties.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced the death of a soldier from the Light Dragoons – the seventh British serviceman to be killed in the country in the past week alone.
He had been taking part in the British-led Operation Panther’s Claw to clear the Taliban from the central Helmand river valley when he was caught in an explosion.
His death takes the number of British servicemen and women to die on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 to 176.
CITY TA PRIVATE HURT: P17
