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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/colonel-condemns-afghanistan-leaks.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Senior commanders have refuted WikiLeaks revelations that US officials criticised the British military's role in Afghanistan" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/min-colonel-condemns-afghanistan-leaks.jpg" alt="Senior commanders have refuted WikiLeaks revelations that US officials criticised the British military's role in Afghanistan"/></a></p>
<p>A former British commander has condemned WikiLeaks for revealing US cables containing concerns about British forces not being &#8220;up to the task&#8221; in Helmand province in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Colonel Stuart Tootal, who commanded the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment in Helmand, told BBC Breakfast: &#8220;The people who leak this stuff, they&#8217;re not helping anyone. </p>
<p>&#8220;They are certainly not helping the poor British or American infantrymen and they are certainly not helping Afghan people. I don&#8217;t think any of this is in the public interest.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said the US held British forces &#8220;in the highest regard&#8221; and said the army had ensured &#8220;strong security&#8221; in Afghanistan for US troops. But Col Tootal admitted the UK had suffered from a lack of resources in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Referring to comments in the cables claiming the UK had &#8220;made a mess of things&#8221; in Helmand, he said: &#8220;These are the views of some individuals and they are some time ago.</p>
<p>&#8220;They refer to a period of time when there were not the right resources. Some of the individual criticisms I think are very unfair. We have now got the resources in place.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think (the army) made a mess of things but we got some of our approach wrong in not having enough resources. A lot of this comment is historic and some of it is unfair.&#8221;</p>
<p>Britain&#8217;s military operations in Afghanistan were criticised by the country&#8217;s president Hamid Karzai, local officials and the American commander of Nato troops, according to the leaked diplomatic papers.</p>
<p>The secret US embassy cables report conversations in which Mr Karzai said that Britain was &#8220;not up to the task&#8221; of securing the southern province of Helmand and suggested the job would be better given to the US.</p>
<p>US general Dan McNeill, who led Nato forces in Afghanistan in 2007/08, is said to have been &#8220;dismayed&#8221; by a British effort which &#8220;made a mess of things&#8221; in Helmand and Helmand governor Gulab Mangal is said to have criticised British troops for failing to get out of their bases and engage with local people.</p>
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