Some Afghan security better, despite UK troop deaths

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - British troop casualties and increased Taliban bomb attacks belie some improvements in security in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, a senior British commander said.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year with the number of incidents greater in all the last three months than any other month since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Some 2,500 people have been killed in the conflict this year, up to 1,000 of them civilians, aid agencies say.

British troop deaths have also peaked with 16 soldiers killed in combat in Helmand since the beginning of June.

"There is a perception among some local nationals and certainly the perception in Kabul and amongst the international community that security has become worse," acting British commander in Helmand, Colonel Neil Hutton, told Reuters.

"But when you look at where that violence is taking place, by and large, it seems to be taking place in areas outside the main population centers," he said in an interview this week.

Some 3,000 British soldiers moved into the vast largely desert province of Helmand in 2006 and quickly became engaged in some the fiercest fighting seen since the Korean war in the 1950s. Troops at times had to call in air strikes just outside their own perimeter to fend off Taliban attacks.

While U.S. troops in the east complain attacks are up by 40 percent this year due to increased cross-border infiltration from Pakistan, the British appear quietly confident they are making some progress in their counter-insurgency campaign in Helmand.

The British are concentrating their efforts to bring a measure of security to a string of towns on the lush fertile banks of the Helmand River where most of the population lives.

But progress is slow and any improvement in security is relative to the dire state the province was in two years ago.

Now at least though, the Taliban have been largely pushed out of the towns. While town centers are by no means "sanitized" and the "odd bomb" was still going off, Hutton said, major attacks were no longer disrupting daily life.

"I think where we find ourselves now compared to 2006, security has vastly improved in my opinion," Hutton said.

Most British casualties are now from suicide and roadside bombs reflecting a shift in Taliban tactics but also the success of Afghan and foreign forces, he said, as the insurgents were increasingly unable to launch conventional attacks.

"There are still a degree of conventional attacks on us when the conditions suit them but by and large I think they have learnt that when they take us on conventionally they tend to die," Hutton said.

PRETTY LETHAL

Asked about the reason for the high number of British troops killed in the last two months, Hutton said it was due to a combination of factors.

"A bit of bad luck, increased troop density and a greater amount of operations being conducted," he said.

"Yes, to a degree the enemy is getting more lethal, but it is also more inefficient. He is having to mount a far greater number of attacks to achieve casualties," he said. "But when they do go off they are pretty lethal."

Some 2,000 U.S. Marines arrived to bolster British troops in Helmand in April and have managed to quell large scale violence in the former Taliban stronghold of Garmsir. But the Taliban may be simply lying low till the Marines leave later this year.

Afghan and British forces would replace the Marines in Garmsir, Hutton said, and any gains made would not be lost.

"I'm quite confident that with the numbers I'm talking about we will not see any significant changes to the security down there," Hutton told Reuters.

"If they (Taliban) think they're going to hang around waiting for any sign of weakness once the Marines have gone, then they're mistaken," Hutton said.

More troops, however, would always be welcome, he said.

"Any increases would be most welcome, no question about it," Hutton said. "I think for tens of years there will be some sort of British military presence here."

(Reporting by Jonathon Burch; Editing by David Fox)