War in Afghanistan: No safe billet for Prince Harry as deaths mount in Helmand

Prince Harry may yet fulfil his desire to serve in a war zone - in Afghanistan rather than Iraq. Last month, military chiefs decided almost at the last minute that Harry, third in line to the throne, could not go to Iraq with his regiment, the Blues and Royals. The Army Chief of Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said the prince had been the target of specific threats, exposing "not only him, but also those around him, to a degree of risk that I now deem unacceptable".

The Blues and Royals are now deploying to Iraq without Cornet, or 2nd Lieutenant, Wales. According to reports last week, however, Army commanders are considering sending him to Afghanistan instead, where he might join a small group of fellow officers training the Afghan army.

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But is Afghanistan any less dangerous? Last week two British soldiers were killed in Helmand province, where most of Britain's 6,500 troops are stationed. A third, who died the previous week, was named.

The most recent fatality, Cpl Mike Gilyeat, died in a helicopter crash which also killed the five-member American crew and a Canadian soldier, who like the Briton was operating as a combat photographer. Ominously, Nato has admitted that the twin-rotor Chinook might have been shot down by Taliban fire, which would be the first time this has happened since British forces arrived in Helmand a little over a year ago.

Born in Hanover, Germany, Cpl Gilyeat, who was 28, followed his father into the Army in August 2002. A member of the Royal Military Police who had served in Iraq, he volunteered for Afghanistan, both to "make a difference" and to diversify into news photography.

His commanding officer, Lt-Col Mike Smith, said he was "a gifted and enthusiastic member of the team", who was thriving in his first employment as a news photographer. "He showed great flair and promise, and had already produced several powerful images."

Just before the helicopter crashed on Wednesday, it had deployed a contingent of US 82nd Airborne troops on the first day of a new operation by Nato and Afghan forces to clear northern Helmand province of insurgents. Some 2,000 troops, half of them British, are taking part in the operation, dubbed "Lastay Kulang" or "axe-handle" in the local Pashto language.

Cpl Darren Bonner, of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment, was killed two days earlier in the same part of Helmand. An explosion hit his convoy about seven miles east of Hyderabad, in the Gereshk area - another sign of how the methods being used by insurgents in Iraq are beginning to be seen in Afghanistan.

Cpl Bonner, 31, was described as "a larger than life figure who made a positive impact on everyone that he met". A devout Christian who was seen reading the Bible the night before he died, he was looking forward to marrying his fiancée, Becca, and buying a home in Great Yarmouth after his tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The corporal, an avid Spurs fan, performed voluntary work for a group called Football in the Community. He joined the Army in 1993, serving as a signaller in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and last year in Iraq.

Cpl Bonner's company commander, Major Dominic Biddick, said he was "an incredibly caring and compassionate man" who was "a real father figure to many of the younger soldiers in A Company. It is tragic to see the life of a devout Christian taken in this fateful manner."

British forces are not fighting the Taliban only in northern Helmand, however. Guardsman Daniel Probyn, named last Sunday as the soldier killed in a mortar attack two days previously, died in heavy combat on the outskirts of Garmsir, far to the south, where there are constant clashes with insurgents coming over the border from Pakistan.

Guardsman Probyn, of 1st Battalion, the Grenadier Guards, was from Tipton. He joined the Army in 2003, when he was 18, and had done two tours of duty in Iraq.

The battalion's commanding officer, Lt-Col A G C Hatherley, described him as "a dependable and loyal friend to all who knew him", adding: "He had tirelessly fought the Taliban just hours earlier at the side of the others in his platoon when he was killed in a second action. Totally focused on the mission, and determined to prevail, he died in the company of those Grenadiers he had previously fought to protect."

Some of the forces in southern Helmand carry out long-range reconnaissance missions of the kind Prince Harry, trained to command a squadron of four Scimitar armoured patrol vehicles, had been expected to perform in Iraq's Maysan province.

It is unlikely, though, that he would serve around Garmsir or in the area where Operation Lastay Kulang is under way. But in Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, there are other options.

The Prince could be posted to the capital, Kabul, where Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) is headquartered, and which is far safer than Baghdad.

Or he could be sent to the regional headquarters, a vast base at Kandahar airport, although a senior British officer said there last autumn that he was convinced the Taliban had many spies on the base, and Kandahar city has seen several insurgent attacks, including an Iraq-style remote-controlled roadside bombing that killed three policemen and wounded four as they gathered at the scene of an earlier explosion.

The main British base in Helmand, Camp Bastion, has never been attacked, unlike its equivalent in Iraq, Basra air station. Even the forward operating bases in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, and Gereshk are reasonably safe.

"The insurgents' methods up to now have been much less sophisticated than in Iraq," said Leo Docherty, a former captain in the Scots Guards who served in both theatres.

"Most British deaths have been caused by small arms fire or rocket-propelled grenades, though signs have been found in Helmand of the use of the shaped charges which have caused many casualties in Iraq," he said.

But if and when Harry goes to Afghanistan, he will find that the mission is not going well, according to Mr Docherty, who quit in disgust after his time in Helmand last year and wrote a book about his experiences. His main complaint was that British and Nato military action was not co-ordinated with aid work to win over the local population.

In Kabul, Prasant Naik, country director for Save the Children UK, said security was too bad for his organisation to even consider operating in Helmand. The ex-officer agreed, saying: "Former colleagues tell me that security does not really exist outside Lashkar Gah, and aid efforts are still barely effective."

He believed that Operation Lastay Kulang, aimed at driving insurgents away from a dam at Kajaki which could generate hydro-electricity for southern Afghanistan, "makes sense". But he added: "We are still pointlessly sending troops to places like Sangin, where we kill lots of civilians in our effort to protect ourselves. If we are not holding ground, there is no point in taking it, and this operation is in the same place as a previous effort, Operation Achilles, which was supposed to get rid of the insurgents."

Lt-Col Charlie Mayo, a spokesman for the British forces in Helmand, insisted that Lastay Kulang was scoring successes. "We're creating pockets in which the Taliban are caught," he said. "We're just squeezing them. It's about stabilising this region, helping local governments get established. It's getting people to believe we're not leaving tomorrow."

Additional reporting by Chris Sands in Kabul

Further reading: "Desert of Death: A Soldier's Journey from Iraq to Afghanistan" by Leo Docherty, Faber, £14.99