PM bolsters marines in Afghanistan
Updated on 13 December 2008
The prime minister tells British troops in Afghanistan their mission is protecting the UK, after four Royal Marines are killed in two attacks.
The prime minister's pre-Christmas visit to Camp Bastion came on one of the bleakest days for British forces in Afghanistan.
His visit came just a day after four marines died in two separate attacks near Sangin.
He condemned the ruthless new tactic that saw the Taliban use a 13-year-old to push a wheelbarrow of explosives in one of the attacks that killed three marines.
Another marine was injured in an explosion, while on patrol in an armoured vehicle, and died on the way to hospital at Camp Bastion.
During the prime minister's unannounced visit to the front line against the Taliban today he warned:
"There is a line of terror, a chain of terror that goes from the Pakistani mountains right across and could end up in the cities and towns of Britain and indeed any other country."
Gordon Brown told troops that Britain was safer because of their work as he travelled to Helmand Province to see the town of Musa Gala, which was recaptured from the Taliban last year.
While it also emerged today that 200 extra soldiers are being sent to Bashkir Gash to help improve security in the area.
Richard Kemp
Samira Ahmed is joined by Colonel Richard Kemp, who was commander of British forces in Afghanistan in 2003, when troops first began being targeted by suicide bombers.
