Afghan forces take control of Nato security following news of peace talks

Off By Sharon Black

Announcement of talks between the US and the Taliban welcomed by British as foreign troops begin to return home

As Afghan forces officially took over control of security across their country from Nato troops, senior British military officials described an unprecedented operation leading to a virtually invisible “UK footprint” there.

Equipment ranging from heavily-armoured trucks to the brass casing of spent bullets – the market for brass is “extraordinarily good” now, observed a British brigadier – will be returned to the UK by air, road, and rail, at a cost unofficially estimated at between £600m and £2bn.

Brigadier Duncan Capps has been in charge of the project, spending the last six months in

British bases in Lashkar Gar and Camp Bastion in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. “As a logistician”, he said, he found “Afghanistan a most difficult place to operate, hot and high, and without a port”.

Between now and December next year when all foreign troops will have ended their combat role, British forces will have sent back to the UK 2,700 vehicles by air and other kit by road through Pakistan to the port of Karachi, or north through central Asia by road and rail to Riga, the …read more