Airmen hit back at army after 'useless in Afghanistan' claim

Bitter recriminations broke out among British forces in Afghanistan last night as factions of the RAF and infantry rounded on each other amid continued combat in Helmand province.
Evidence of a split surfaced in the wake of comments by Major James Loden of 3 Para that the RAF had been 'utterly, utterly useless' during operations against the Taliban. A series of fractious emails emerged yesterday from furious service personnel, provoking fears that morale was at risk of collapsing. Further concern came with fresh evidence that the psychological fallout of Afghanistan may prove far greater than that from Iraq, while the number of UK casualties from Helmand was said to have caused British-based medical centres to be 'absolutely overrun'.

In one angry email to colleagues, a pilot operating in Sangin claimed that decisions taken by some senior infantry officers had put the lives of RAF crew at risk. He wrote: 'I take it was not this major's [Loden] troops I was picking up in Sangin whilst being RPGed? [attacked by rocket-propelled grenades]. Should I call his troops utterly useless when they lit up a landing site with a strobe for the second time because they forgot to switch it off and risk the lives of four blokes and 25 million quid plus the life of other casualty we were trying to pick up?'

Members of the infantry responded in kind. One soldier admitted that he had become so frustrated with an RAF crew who had landed at the wrong airfield that he could have resorted to physical violence. 'If I could have gotten hold of the pilot I would have kicked seven bells of shite out of him,' he said.

Another claimed that the RAF in Afghanistan 'is ... poor at identifying targets and timid about engagements'. One even alleged that some airdrops actually ended up supplying Taliban forces. The claims drew a stinging response from RAF crews supporting ground troops in southern Afghanistan. One email said that all their 'airdrops were bang on target. I know this because I've been involved in them!!!!!'

Many discussing Loden's comments on army messageboards praised the RAF for their support in Afghanistan and said the only result of Loden's criticism would be to 'hand a dollop of morale-boosting syrup to the enemy'.

Yesterday, the country's top soldier agreed, dismissing Loden's comments as 'irresponsible', while praising the RAF as 'exceptional'. The Chief of General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, added that mistakes were 'understandable in the fog of war and the heat of battle'.

The spat arrived amid fresh developments over a separate, but equally bitter, row over the true level of official information released by the government on the level of British casualties. Although the MoD will not reveal data on the number of British troops being treated for psychological illnesses following fighting in Helmand, The Observer has learnt that troops are being evacuated back to Britain after suffering combat stress in Afghanistan at a much higher rate than from Iraq.

Combat Stress, the charity that provides help for veterans with mental health problems, said the number of referrals from Helmand was already running into 'double figures'. By contrast, the group is helping 120 personnel from Iraq, three-and-a-half years after operations began there. Evidence has also emerged that the number of casualties is running higher than the MoD has so far publicly admitted.

The MoD is expected to release last month's casualty figures this week. Dannatt yesterday denied there was any attempt to cover up casualty figures in Afghanistan.
The Observer