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British deputy PM visits troops in Afghanistan

01 September 2010 02:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has visited British troops in Afghanistan and insisted the military campaign there is "turning the corner," Britain’s Skynews reported on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

Clegg praised the "bravery and professionalism" of British forces stationed in the country and said there would be no extension to the deadline for combat troops to leave.

"This is not something you do overnight, but we have got five years to do this right," he said, "we have been very clear, we have put a full stop at the end of our engagement. By 2015 there will not be any British combat troops in Afghanistan."

The deputy prime minister spent time in Helmand Province before meeting troops at Camp Bastion, saying that "what I have seen today is a complete transformation of the military effort that I first saw when I visited two years ago."

After British Prime Minister David Cameron’s trip there in June it emerged the Taliban had come close to launching an attack on his helicopter.

In addition to Camp Bastion, Clegg went to a frontline operating base in Nad-i-Ali and visited a school, clinic and police station funded by Britain.