Atlantic Council

From the Telegraph:  British troops will be withdrawn from the Sangin area of Afghanistan later this year, Defence Secretary Liam Fox told MPs.

He said the UK had agreed to a redeployment which will see US Marines assume responsibility for the area where nearly a third of UK deaths in the conflict have occurred. ...

Dr Fox also said 300 extra British troops from a reserve battalion kept on stand-by in Cyprus would be deployed on a temporary basis until the switchover was complete - likely to be in October.

''The result will be a coherent and equitable division of the main populated areas of Helmand between three brigade-sized forces, with the US in the north and the south, and the UK-led Task Force Helmand, alongside our outstanding Danish and Estonian allies, in the central population belt,'' he told the Commons. ...

US Marine Corps now has more than twice as many troops in Helmand as Britain.

Nato commanders have been reviewing their counter-insurgency mission in recent months. On a visit to London last month, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said: “The view of the British military is they probably don't have enough manpower to do that their areas of Helmand.”

Today’s announcement follows a change in the Afghan command structure that puts all troops in Helmand under the command of a US Marine Corps general.  (photo: AP)