Kabul, October 11: The full scale of the lethal challenge facing UK forces in Afghanistan was laid bare last night after the Government reported that British soldiers fought directly with Taliban insurgents seven times every day.
As the threat from the resurgent Taliban has multiplied recently, the number of confrontations with opposition forces has soared more than twenty-fold from the 10 experienced every month only three years ago.
New details of the number of “contact events” undergone by British forces in Helmand province emerged as a new study, compiled from official Ministry of Defence figures, revealed that British forces are suffering death rates as bad as those endured by the Soviets, who lost a war of attrition against Afghan insurgents in the country during the 1980s.
–Agencies