Troop deaths a blow to Afghan exit strategy
Updated on 04 November 2009
The shooting of five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Afghanistan today is a severe blow to plans for the withdrawal of UK troops from the country. Jonathan Miller reports.

It is supposed to be the UK's exit strategy from Afghanistan, building the country's security forces to a level where British troops can be withdrawn.
Thousands of police and army recruits are now being trained by Nato forces.
But in a country where corruption is endemic, those forces are open to infiltration by the Taliban, as the shooting of five British soldiers appears to show.
