Tributes paid to UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Page last updated at 06:19 GMT, Thursday, 15 July 2010 07:19 UK

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Tributes have been paid to the three UK troops who died when a member of the Afghan Army attacked his own base in Helmand. Major James Joshua Bowman, Lieutenant Neal Turkington and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun were from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles.
David Cameron says UK soldiers need to keep training Afghanistan's army. The Afghan soldier, who's on the run after the attack in Nahr-e Saraj, shot seven UK troops in total. The Taliban says it's now sheltering him.
Newsbeat's US reporter Sima Kotecha visited troops in Helmand Province in December 2009, where she met troops from the Afghan National Army.
Operation Mushtarak - which means "Together" in the Pashtun language of southern Afghanistan - was launched in February.
Afghan forces played a vital role in planning the operation, before large numbers of newly-trained police were introduced into the area. The police were also supported by coalition forces.
In the past coalition forces have driven out the Taliban but then had too few troops to maintain security for the local population.
The offensive was the first major military action since US President Barack Obama announced the deployment of 30,000 extra US troops at the beginning of the year.
Planning for the new operation took weeks, with Nato helicopters dropping leaflets on the area warning residents to leave.
During her visit to Afghanistan Newsbeat's Sima Kotecha also spent time with US marines at a Forward Operating Base.
There were around 94,000 troops in the Afghan National Army in October 2009 and over 80,000 Afghan police. The army help support Nato operations in the area.