Fighting force is home at last (From This Is Local London)

Fighting force is home at last

10:50am Wednesday 24th October 2007

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Soldiers from the Royal Anglian Regiment are home after six months of fighting in Afghanistan. Medical officer Major Andrew Tredget talks to reporter JON CHEETHAM about his tour.

WHEN the soldiers from B Company flew home on October 16, a demanding and challenging chapter ended in the 43-year history of the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment.

‘The Taliban influences people through ignorance of what is happening’

MAJOR ANDREW TREDGET, ROYAL ANGLIAN REGIMENT

They were the last of the regiment's 750 soldiers to be reunited with family and loved-ones after a gradual journey home which included decompression time in Cyprus - to get the men used to civilian life.

Major Tredget - who spoke to News Shopper halfway through his tour in July - joined his parents, Douglas and Mary Tredget, at their home in Locksbottom on October 14.

After seeing some fierce and bloody fighting during the first half of the tour, the 34-year-old medical officer has spent the past three-months with A Company at a compound in Sangin, which is in the north of Helmand province.

Although the company went out on operations into the fertile green zone to the north of the Sangin valley, Major Tredget mostly dealt with casualties brought to him.

The majority of casualties brought to the medical centre - set up inside the compound of a house of an absconded drug baron - where Afghan National Army soldiers, Afghan police and civilians.

Major Tredget says this is due to the way Taliban fighters are engaging British and Nato forces.

He said: "Because we've been successful as a company, the Taliban don't want to take us on conventionally, with small arms on the ground.

"They went for tactics where there is less risk for them, such as roadside bombs.

"Our area of control is increasing and Sangin was under our control and local people noticed this and welcomed the improvements in security.

"We are driving the Taliban further north to Kajaki, where they still have a strong presence."

Public relations are a vital weapon and "shurra" or conferences with village elders helped build security and provide information about Taliban movements and locations.

Major Tredget, who is a doctor and trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, said: "We try to get to know the locals and they will tell us if the Taliban have moved through the area.

"We discuss with the village elders what we can do to improve their lives.

"The level of civilization is going back a few generations.

"The Taliban influences people through ignorance of what is happening."

When considering local intelligence reports, Major Tredget says you factor in the "Afghan maths" - a tendency to exaggerate.

He added: "The Taliban usually work in groups of four or five, but they may have a strength of 12.

"However, we sometimes had local intelligence reports of 150 fighters infiltrating an area.

"We always take these figures with a pinch of salt."

The success of the regiment, which has been replaced by 40 Commando Royal Marines in Helmand, has come at a cost - with nine fatalities and 57 injured.

Major Tredget said: "The incidents with B and C companies have been reported in the press.

"The friendly fire incident in which three members of B Company were killed was a particularly low point for the regiment."

Now he is home, Major Tredget will study for his exams for membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners next week, before rejoining his regiment at their base in Purbright, Surrey.

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