Posts tagged Brown

clickExpire var = “-1″; United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, during a March 6 visit to Shawqat forward operating base, Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan. HIGHLIGHTING NEW STORY: UK Ministry of Defense: Soldier dies after explosion in Helmand said ProvinceBrown research troops in Iraq had been given to all teams op requestedFormer military officials said that the PM team claims are “simply disingenuous'Trip occurs within 24 hours after the UK PM to testify in Iraq Survey London

(CNN) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to British troops in Afghanistan on Saturday, his office said.

Went to Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand province and a police college and a British operating base or outpost, according to 10 Downing Street.

Brown's office told news media on his visit to Afghanistan, while he was in the country, but asked that was not reported until they went. CNN complied with the request.

As Brown was doing hisvisit, the Defense Ministry announced a British soldier killed in Afghanistan Friday.

The soldier died from wounds received as a result of an explosion while on foot patrol near Sangin, in Helmand province, the ministry said in a press release. The death was not related to Operation Moshtarak the “big push” against the Taliban in the south, according to the ministry.

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The soldier's identity was not released. His family has been informed of his death, the ministry said.

Brown's trip to Afghanistan cameless than 24 hours after he testified in London that Iraq before the country for research, where he reiterated that British troops in Iraq had all the equipment required.

Lord Charles Guthrie, a former British chief of defense, rejected these claims in a newspaper column on Saturday.

“For Gordon Brown to tell him that the military has asked that all that is not true,” wrote the Daily Telegraph. “He can not go out with her saying,” I would give everything that I asked. “This is simply untrue.”

Guthrie was an army officer above the country from 1997 to 2001. Brown was finance minister – the man in charge of government spending – from 1997 until 2007, when he became prime minister. The war in Afghanistan began in October 2001. The invasion of Iraq took place in March 2003.

“The Defense Ministry has received the least chancellor, who wanted to give the military the least that could go with her,” wrote Guthrie, who joined the House of Lords, the upper chamber of British law after retiring from the military. He is not associated with a political party.

EyebrowsNo spent much of Friday, the defense of emission rights of military spending, which is under severe scrutiny in Britain. Earlier witnesses have said Brown, as Chancellor in the time before and after the invasion of Iraq, did not allow the Defense Ministry to spend as much as was needed.

These limits have restricted the ability to buy military helicopters, bulletproof vests and weapons that were later used in Afghanistan.

However, Brown said that as chancellor, did not rule out the military option on the basis of cost.

“He told me that every request that was made by [military equipment] would meet, and every request was fulfilled, and at any time the military leaders were capable of that equipment they needed, and I know of no occasion in which were rejected by him, “he said.

Geoff Hoon, Secretary of Defense at the time of the 2003 invasion, said that Brown forced to cut military spending limited.

“Then we had to look far into our budget and make some difficult cuts in the program as a result of future teams,” said Hoon.

Brown had faced increasing pressure andstify before Britain held general elections, expected to be held May 6th. From his Labor Party faces a hard-fought race with the conservative opposition.

The invasion of Iraq and if the British role in it, Brown said Friday the decision to go to war “was the right decision and for the right reasons.”

The investigation, which began last year, is expected to be the most thorough investigation yet into the decisions that led to war and governing the participation of Britain, said analysts.

It is not a court of law, so that research can not find anyone criminally responsible, or even guilt. But members of the research will be able to judge the legality of the conflict.

– CNN Caroline Paterson and Melissa Gray contributed to this report