British troops sent to Afghanistan as part of the “surge” designed to quell the Taleban insurgency are to be brought home next summer, David Cameron has announced, as he said coalition forces had secured a limited victory in the country.
In a sign that British military advisers had won their battle to avoid the kind of rapid reduction in troop numbers adopted by the US, the Prime Minister confirmed that only 500 soldiers will be withdrawn next year. The modest drawdown was first revealed by The Times last month.
Mr Cameron also confirmed expectations about what could be achieved in Afghanistan had been significantly recalibrated as he outlined the progress made in security and the training of Afghan armed forces and police.
Veering away from previous declarations about building democracy in the country, he said the aim was not to create a “model society” but to help Afghans to look after their own security.
He told MPs he had “sought to take a more hard-headed, security based approach” to the mission, which aimed at reducing the number of terror threats on Britain by making Afghanistan safer.
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“We are in Afghanistan for one over-riding reason: to ensure our own national security by helping the Afghans take control of theirs,” he said. “While it is too early to tell for certain, initial evidence suggests we have halted the momentum of the Taleban insurgency in its heartland in Helmand.”
He added the number of threats to Britain spawned in Afghanistan and Pakistan was “now significantly reduced”.
His pragmatic assessment comes soon after Mr Cameron confessed during a trip to Afghanistan that the Government had previously “set expectations to an unrealistic level and tried to do too many things”.
The decision for a modest troop reduction in 2012 comes after military lobbying. Lt Gen James Bucknall, second-in-command in the country, had publicly called for two more summer “fighting seasons” with high troop numbers.
However, fears remain that British troops fighting in Helmand Province could bear an even bigger burden after the US withdrawal, which will see 33,000 troops pulled out by the end of next summer.
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US officials have yet to reveal how the huge drawdown will affect each region, but Helmand security was one of the main beneficiaries of the surge in 2009.
The timeline for beginning to hand over Helmand security to Afghan forces also remains ambitious. The transfer is set to begin in July 2012, with all British troops removed from combat by the end of 2014.
Mr Cameron has been repairing relations with the military following a series of criticisms from Britain’s top brass. He was accompanied by the head of the armed forces, General Sir David Richards, during his two-day visit to Afghanistan earlier this week.
However, Downing St officials still bear the scars of battle with the military, with one senior member of Mr Cameron’s team joking that Britain’s generals needed to be more outgoing.