Patrolling Afghanistan
16-minutes, 2007
TX: Newsnight 26/9/07
Ref: 622

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If you want to know what life is like for soldiers in Afghanistan this is the nearest you'll get to it. This film in the Sangin Valley best illustrates what British soldiers have been doing this summer in Southern Afghanistan. The Grenadiers have been training the Helmand Brigade of the Afghan National Army.
But this is no normal training programme. The bullets are real and so are the Taliban. This really is training on the job.

Controlling the troops
This operation was the first time that the ANA were employed by the British within a formal British military operation of this size.
Controlling this number of troops, trying to keep them safe while making quick progress and managing the communications and fire support is complex.
Training the ANA is the sort of work that would normally be done by Special Forces.
The four Grenadiers in the film have to have their wits about them. They have to be extra vigilant: they cannot expect ANA soldiers to behave the way British soldiers would.
The Grenadiers, while taking the lead in attacks, have to carry extra equipment.
The ANA are brave fighters, and are excellent at spotting the Taliban, but they are not used to British levels of military discipline and organisation.
The Grenadiers rely on translators for communication and this is very difficult when the bullets are flying.
In conversation, British officers loosely estimated that, during this operation in the Sangin Valley, they killed about 30 Taliban.
These are not official figures. It is not the British Army's policy to claim body-counts.
British soldiers seem respectful of the fighting ability of the Taliban. The Taliban are very mobile, know the ground better and try to surprise and disrupt the British and Afghan National Army advance whenever they can.
The Taliban are almost always the first to open fire, seeing the British before being seen. They fire with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades.
The British, when they have worked out where the Taliban are firing from, return fire aggressively to encourage the Taliban to "keep their heads down" and therefore stop firing.
British tactics are methodical but more cumbersome. The British are not prepared to take unnecessary casualties and try to use helicopters or artillery in an attempt to kill the Taliban before sending soldiers in.
Most of the time, when the soldiers arrive they find that the Taliban have evacuated their positions, taking any wounded or dead with them.
The British, part of a larger NATO force, aim to clear areas of Taliban and encourage the farmers and townsfolk to return and carry on with life as normal.
It is too early to say whether they are going to be successful in the long run.
When NATO leave Afghanistan the Afghan National Army (ANA) will have to take over the fight against the Taliban, securing whatever gains NATO has achieved.
Modern warfare
The fighting in Afghanistan is tough and would be recognised by veterans of the Second World War. But the Taliban are not the German Wehrmacht and modern wars that are 60 years apart defy simplistic comparison.