London: Prime Minister Gordon Brown dismissed remarks by one of his ministers on Wednesday that Britain does not have enough helicopters in Afghanistan, as he sought to move past a damaging row over resources.
Brown said the remarks to a newspaper by outgoing junior
Foreign Office Minister Lord Mark Malloch-Brown had been
misrepresented and repeated his insistence that British troops
had everything they need.
"I am satisfied that Operation Panther`s Claw has the
resources it needs to be successful," he said, referring to a
major assault on Taliban insurgents in the southern Afghan
province of Helmand which British troops began in June.
"I think the fact that it is making progress at the
moment and yielding results already shows that that is the
case.... For the operation we are doing at the moment we have
the helicopters we need."
Brown has been forced to defend his strategy in
Afghanistan following a surge in troops deaths there, in a row
that has piled the pressure on a government already struggling
with the recession and an expenses scandal.
The intervention of Malloch-Brown is an embarrassing
addition to calls from military chiefs and the main opposition
Conservatives -- who are leading Brown`s Labour party in the
polls -- for more troops and equipment.
Bureau Report
