Afghan bombs kill 12 including British soldier (AP)

[News Manager]

AP - Bombs killed a dozen people, including a British soldier and five children, in southern Afghanistan, authorities said Friday, as U.S. and British officials consider sending more troops to combat the growing Taliban insurgency.




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[rattler]

... makes it now 16 brits just this month.

Just this morning read that Britain has just 25 (!) helos deployed for some 9k solds, and they have only 8 more in resrve (but cannot use them because comms gear is not compatible), this is a shame.

At least they now start discussing it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8153129.stm

Rattler

 

[rattler]

seems this hilarious number was right, here current deployment of Brit Helos (http://www.pprune.org/5068521-post1.html), that indeed makes it 23 active helos in A´stan and 8 Merlins coming... (the other 8 CH47s, as alreaday mentioned, will need 2 yrs to deploy, SecDef refers to them as "the 8 useless CH47s we bought in 1996"):

Where British helicopters are stationed

Chinooks

Total 40 in fleet

10 in Helmand

29 in Hampshire

8 to be sent to Helmand

1 being used in an exercise

Pumas

43 in fleet

None in Afghanistan

Merlins

Total 70 in the fleet

None yet in Afghanistan

8 to be sent to Afghanistan

Sea Kings

Total 90 in the fleet

5 in Afghanistan

Apaches

Total 67 in the fleet

8 in Afghanistan

Lynx

Total 176 in the fleet

None in Afghanistan

Gazelles

Total 133 in the fleet

None in Afghanistan

Other

Total 47 in the fleet

None in Afghanistan