Britain hits grim milestone before major attack in southern Afghanistan

Britain hits grim milestone before major attack

KABUL — Three British soldiers have died in southern Afghanistan, officials announced Monday, raising Britain’s death toll in the conflict to 256 — breaking the number of Britons lost in the Falklands war of 1982.

Britain reached the grim milestone as British, American and Afghan forces are preparing for a major attack on Marjah in Helmand province, the biggest town in southern Afghanistan under Taliban control. Britain’s defense secretary has warned the British public to expect more casualties when the Marjah attack occurs.

U.S. officials have said for weeks that they plan to attack Marjah, a center of the Taliban’s logistical and opium smuggling network about 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul. But the precise date of the attack has been kept secret.

Two soldiers from the Royal Scots Borderers were killed Sunday in an explosion near the Helmand district of Sangin, which is located north of Marjah, the Ministry of Defense said.

Another soldier working with a specialized bomb unit in Afghanistan was killed in an explosion. Lt. Col. David Wakefield said in a statement Monday the serviceman died in the Nad-e-Ali district of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.

Britain’s losses in the Falklands occurred during a 73-day war to drive Argentine forces from the South Atlantic colony they had invaded to affirm their own claim to the islands, which they call the Malvinas.

In London, Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth warned that British casualties were a “very real risk” during the upcoming operation around Marjah, which has a population estimated at about 80,000.

“We have seen an intense, hard and bloody period in Afghanistan but … it is imperative that we hold our resolve,” Ainsworth said after the deaths were announced.

U.S. officials telegraphed their plans for Marjah in hopes that most of the estimated 400 to 1,000 Taliban fighters would leave the area, allowing NATO to re-establish Afghan government control there. The top U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has said repeatedly that success in Afghanistan does not depend on killing Taliban fighters but protecting Afghan civilians and winning their support.

But Afghan and U.S. officials say there is little evidence that significant numbers of Taliban fighters or civilians have fled Marjah.

“The criminals, the drug dealers, they’re out of there,” said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. “But the die-hards, they’re readying for a fight.”

He said intelligence reports indicate weapons and ammunition are continuing to come into Marjah, although U.S. troops have taken up position near the town. The Marines’ main forward position, Outpost Belleau Wood, lies about seven miles (10 kilometers) north of Marjah from which U.S. 155-mm cannon have been firing flares toward the town at night.

Last weekend, McChrystal defended the decision to advertise the Marjah attack, saying the element of surprise was not as important as letting the town’s residents know that an Afghan government was on the way to replace Taliban rulers and drug traffickers.

“We’re trying to create a situation where we communicate to them that when the government re-establishes security, they’ll have choices,” McChrystal told reporters Sunday.

NATO commanders have said they would prefer that civilians remain in the town to help pinpoint land mines and weapons caches once the troops arrive.

U.S. and Afghan officials have said Afghanistan’s own army and police will play a major role in the Marjah operation, although the numbers of NATO and Afghan forces taking part in the attack have not been released. The Afghan army’s 3rd Brigade, considered among the best, has been sent to Helmand to join in the operation, which is being touted as a major step in NATO-Afghan partnership.

However, recent events have raised questions about the efficiency and discipline within the Afghan security forces — especially the police.

Sweden’s military, meanwhile, said a gunman who killed two Swedish officers and their local interpreter Sunday in northern Afghanistan was wearing a police uniform.

The shooting occurred while the Swedish patrol was visiting a police station near the village of Gurgi Tappeh. But Swedish military spokesman Gustaf Wallerfeldt said it was unclear if the gunman — who also was killed — was a policeman or an impostor.

Also Monday, officials said a district administrator in northwestern Afghanistan has been accused of militant links and corruption, the second senior Afghan official to be arrested in the past week.

Aminullah, the chief administrator in the Taliban-influenced district of Bala Murghab, was detained late Thursday, but officials did not disclose the news until after his interrogation.

He was accused of passing sensitive military and intelligence information to militants through a man who worked in his office, according to the chief prosecutor assigned to the case.

He also faced corruption charges for allegedly selling government property and cooking oil meant for poor people for personal gain, prosecutor Mohammad Nahim Naziry said.

Naziry said Aminullah’s brother also was the leader of a militant cell that attacked Afghan and foreign forces in Badghis province.

He said Aminullah was arrested by NATO-backed Afghan troops. The alliance said it was looking into the report.

A deputy provincial police chief in Kapisa province, Attaullah Wahab, was arrested Friday and accused of involvement in a roadside bomb network as well as corruption charges.

Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Kim Gamel in Kabul and Alfred de Montesquiou in Helmand contributed to this report.