Afghan war

The UK has announced that it will send 440 more troops to serve in Afghanistan, bringing the total number of its troops there to more than a thousand. The government made the announcement ahead of discussion at NATO about its military deployments in Afghanistan, which continues to be plagued by Taliban attacks. The extra troops…

Sergeant Blackman’s former commanding officer reveals to Channel 4 News the untold story of warnings issued about the disgraced marine’s unit, a lack of leadership and how “more could have been done in advance to avoid” the tragic outcome.

It’s two years since the British army officially ended combat operations in Afghanistan. Since then large areas formerly controlled by coalition troops have fallen to a resurgent Taliban.

Forty per cent of Afghan civilians say they’d leave the country if they could – fleeing persecution, war and deprivation in greater numbers now than at any time since the Taliban were ousted. But, unlike Syrians and Iraqis, the European Union classes most as economic migrants. Our Asia Correspondent, Jonathan Miller, has been to Herat…

More civilians have been killed or injured in Afghanistan last year than ever before, yet the EU is seeking to repatriate up to 80,000 refugees.

Does counter-insurgency work? The British in southern Afghanistan have four more years to prove it one way or another. Lindsey Hilsum writes from Afghanistan.

Tragic though the 300th British dead soldier/marine is, it is the Afghan people for whom we are fighting we are told, and the Afghan people who remain resolutely ignored, writes Alex Thomson

“I have the impression that we are the first TV team to be allowed out with the people who deal with the IED roadside bombs, the key insurgent weapon in Helmand,” writes Alex Thomson.

Alex Thomson joins a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan on a mission to clear just three IEDs from a main road.

Expect Britain to fairly soon slowly sidestep away from Helmand into Kandahar, but it will be no comparative picnic writes Asia correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.

Alex Thomson on the problems of meetings in Afghanistan and talks between the district governor and the British army.

Alex Thomson is stopped by an IED in the road ahead in Afghanistan.