# Afghanistan War: UK Troops Missing, Believed Killed In Helmand 6



## High_Gravity (Mar 7, 2012)

Afghanistan War: UK Troops Missing, Believed Killed In Helmand 6 









> KABUL, Afghanistan -- Six British soldiers were believed killed after an explosion hit their armored vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Wednesday. If confirmed, it would be the biggest loss of life for British forces in the country since a plane crash in 2006.
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> The soldiers were on patrol in Helmand province at the time of the blast Tuesday evening. Britain's defense secretary said efforts were under way to recover the vehicle and identify the soldiers.
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Afghanistan War: UK Troops Missing, Believed Killed In Helmand 6


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## Peach (Mar 7, 2012)

High_Gravity said:


> Afghanistan War: UK Troops Missing, Believed Killed In Helmand 6
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We should have ended this war before the Iraq diversion. Saddam was a monster but not fundamentalist; he was MILITARY, wore military dress before the surge of radical Islam. We could have slipped money to foster the opposition. We ARE creating MORE Islamic "Republics".


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## High_Gravity (Mar 7, 2012)

Peach said:


> High_Gravity said:
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If we had stayed the course in Afghanistan and not diverted all our resources to Iraq this whole campaign would probably be done by now.


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## waltky (Oct 12, 2016)

Corruption is costing Afghanistan the war against the Taliban...




*As Helmand Risks Falling to the Taliban, Afghans Blame Graft*
_Oct 12, 2016 — For the past month, the Taliban have held control over most of Afghanistan's Helmand province, where the majority of the world's opium is grown — and as insurgent attacks intensify around the provincial capital, residents are blaming rampant government corruption for the rising militant threat._


> At an international aid conference last week, Afghanistan's leaders raised $15 billion from their international backers and pledged to clamp down on graft. But corrupt officials have hollowed out the national security forces, selling weapons and even government buildings to the Taliban, and alienated local populations. One Afghan official said that Helmand residents were so angry at corruption that they were turning to the Taliban, despite memories of the extremist group's harsh rule.  Afghanistan is consistently rated by the corruption watchdog Transparency International as one of the world's most corrupt countries, along with Somalia and North Korea. "It is estimated that an eighth of all the money that goes to Afghanistan is lost to corruption," it said in a report released ahead of the aid conference.
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> The U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, John Sopko, who is charged with tracing billions of dollars of American aid, estimates that while the United States pays salaries for 320,000 Afghan soldiers and police nationwide, the actual number of troops is just 120,000. The remainder are so-called "ghost soldiers." Corrupt commanders claim salaries and benefits for soldiers and police who either don't exist, have agreed to hand over part of their pay in exchange for not going to work, or who have been killed in battle.  Of the 26,000 security force personnel officially assigned to Helmand, up to half are ghost soldiers, according to Sopko's most recent report.
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See also:

* DOD Cracking Down on Payments to Afghan 'Ghost Soldiers'*
_Oct 09, 2016 | DoD said that Afghan soldiers and police are undergoing person-by-person verification and biometric registration._


> The U.S. Defense Department has assured a watchdog agency that a number of efforts are being carried out to track Afghan active-duty security forces, so that American taxpayer dollars are not wasted on so-called ghost soldiers.  In a letter to the Pentagon released Friday -- 15 years to the day since the United States invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban -- the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said it was worried about "significant gaps between the assigned force strength of the [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] and the actual number of personnel serving."
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> SIGAR expressed particular unease about southern Helmand province, where Afghan forces have been struggling to fend off relentless Taliban offensives.  Afghanistan's TOLOnews in June quoted Helmand's incoming police chief as saying that up to half of the roughly 26,000 soldiers and police officers assigned to the province did not exist.  Officially, Afghan security forces -- which include the army and local and national police -- are said to number about 320,000, but The Associated Press reported earlier this year that there were likely fewer than half of that number.
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