Our inquiry
9. This is our second report into UK operations in
Afghanistan. In our first report, The UK deployment to Afghanistan,
published on 4 April 2006, we examined the challenges facing the
ARRC ahead of its mission to lead ISAF in Afghanistan.[9]
We also examined the proposed deployment of 16 Air Assault Brigade
to Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan. In our first report
we announced our intention to hold a further inquiry into Afghanistan
to examine the lessons learned from those deployments. Since we
published our first report, we have continued to monitor developments
in Afghanistan. In July 2006, we visited Islamabad, Pakistan,
and then Kabul, Helmand and Kandahar, Afghanistan, for meetings
with officials, politicians and military personnel.
10. We announced our second inquiry on 31 January
2007.[10] We have assessed
the progress made in Afghanistan during the ARRC's leadership
of ISAF. We have also examined the experiences of UK Forces in
Southern Afghanistan since their initial deployment in May 2006.
As part of our inquiry, on 16 April 2007, we travelled to New
Delhi, India, and met with senior government and military representatives
to discuss the issues facing Afghanistan and the wider region.
On 18 April 2007, we travelled on to Afghanistan for a series
of meetings in Kabul with UK officials and Afghan politicians
and then to Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in Southern Afghanistan to
meet UK military personnel, local politicians and local representatives
of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) based in Helmand Province.
11. We took evidence on 20 March 2007 from Rt Hon
Des Browne MP, Secretary of State for Defence; Mr Martin Howard
CB, Director General Operations Policy at the MoD; Lieutenant
General Nick Houghton CBE, Chief of Joint Operations (MoD); and
Mr Peter Holland, Head of the Afghan Drugs Inter-Departmental
Unit (ADIDU).
12. On 27 March 2007, we took oral evidence from
a range of experts: Dr Shirin Akiner, Lecturer in Central Asian
Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS);
Mr Robert Fox, journalist and historian; Dr Gilbert Greenall,
Government Adviser on humanitarian issues; Ms Norine MacDonald
QC, President of the Senlis Council; Mr Rory Stewart, Chief Executive
of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, Kabul, and Dr Michael Williams,
Head of the Transatlantic Programme at the Royal United Services
Institute (RUSI).
13. On 24 April 2007, we took oral evidence from
General David Richards CBE, Commander of the ARRC and Commander
of ISAF from May 2006 until February 2007.
14. In our concluding evidence session on 8 May 2007,
we took further oral evidence from Rt Hon Des Browne MP; Lieutenant
General Nick Houghton CBE and Mr Peter Holland. We also took evidence
from Mr Desmond Bowen CMG, Policy Director at the MoD, and Lindy
Cameron, Head of the Department for International Development
(DfID) in Afghanistan.
15. We received written evidence from ADIDU; the
British and Irish Afghanistan Agencies Group (BAAG), the MoD;
the Senlis Council; Dr Shirin Akiner; Dr Gilbert Greenall; Olivia
Holdsworth, an expert on the judicial system in Afghanistan and
Philip Wilkinson. We are grateful to those who gave evidence to
our inquiry and assisted with our visits. We are also grateful
to our specialist advisers who assisted us in our inquiry.
Key developments since April 2006
16. Our first inquiry into operations in Afghanistan
was concluded in April 2006 before both the full deployment of
the ARRC to lead ISAF and the main deployment of 16 Air Assault
Brigade to Helmand Province. Last year, public awareness of the
aims and objectives of the UK deployment to Afghanistan—Operation
Herrick—was low. A year on, operations in Afghanistan have
become the subject of increased media and public focus in the
light of UK Forces conducting sustained operations against tenacious
insurgent fighters.
17. The scale of the threat is demonstrated by the
fact that as of 1 July 2007, 40 of our Service personnel have
been killed in, or as a result of, action in Afghanistan (63 have
died in total in Afghanistan).[11]
We pay tribute to those Service people who have lost their
lives or suffered injury and extend our deep sympathies to their
families. The commitment given by our entire Armed Services has
been shown to be outstanding.
18. The table below identifies the recent key developments
in Afghanistan.
Table 1: Key developments in Afghanistan since
May 2006
