Royal Welch surge troops see Afghan action
Updated on 03 February 2010
A total of 160 men from the Royal Welch Fusiliers have gone into action with the Afghan National Army at Kushhal Kalay in the Nadi Ali district of central Helmand.
Journalist Vaughan Smith is embedded with the Royal Welch Fusiliers
The Royal Welch are part of the British Army's force uplift of 500 soldiers sent as Britain's response to the request by President Obama for additional troops to support US General McChrystal's Afghanistan surge.
The Welshmen took the village in the morning without a shot being fired but two fusiliers were lightly wounded by an explosive device, believed to have been initiated by an insurgent hiding in one of the mosques in the village.
The operation was supported by specialist US Marine mine clearance teams and the Afghan National Army group included French military advisers.
The commander of the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Roland Walker of the Grenadier Guards, explained to Channel 4 News how he was fighting to win over the Afghan population and that it was "not about the Taliban".
Colonel Walker said that his soldiers practice "courageous restraint" so would avoid shooting at insurgents if doing so was likely to risk civilian lives.
There is an increasing tempo of military operations in central Helmand as Nato forces move to expand the areas that they control, attempting to separate the Afghan population from the insurgents and promote President Karzai's governance more widely.
