British military leaders admit 'flaws' in Afghanistan strategy

Former Army leaders have admitted that the British military was not equipped to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time, creating a "perfect storm".

General Sir Peter Wall, who stood down as Chief of the General Staff last month, has said that British soldiers were sent into Afghanistan based on a "wrong" calculation of resources.

After 13 years in the country, British service personnel will be withdrawn almost completely from the country by the end of the year. More than 450 British soldiers died in the conflict, with hundreds suffering serious injuries such as limb amputations.

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Speaking on the BBC2 series Afghanistan: The Lion's Last Roar, Sir Peter said that military leaders sent 3,300 troops into Afghanistan in 2004 despite knowing that they did not have the resources to fight in more than one campaign.

"We had put forward a plan saying that for the limited objectives that we had set ourselves, this was a reasonable force. And I freely admit now, that calculus was wrong," he said.

Lord Dannatt, head of the Army between 2006 and 2009, also admitted that their assumption that the Iraq war was winding down by summer 2006 was "flawed".

He told the BBC: "We called it the perfect storm, because we knew that we were heading for two considerable size operations and we really only had the organisation and manpower for one."

In the summer of 2006, soldiers found themselves overstretched, under constant fire and dangerously low on food, water and ammunition, says the BBC.

Lord Richards, who commanded the 35,000 troops from 37 nations in Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) from 2006 to 2007, said there was an "institutional reluctance" to accept that the conflict could deteriorate.

"I didn't have a reserve, I didn't even have an aircraft to fly round my own patch," he said. "I mean we just weren't in the real world."

The Ministry of Defence admitted there were "military obstacles" at the beginning of the Afghanistan campaign, but said "we can be proud of what we have achieved".

The terrorist threat to the UK from the region was "substantially reduced" and the UK has played an "important role in training Afghan security forces", it said.