By IRNA,
London : Stop the War Coalition (STWC) is holding a series of demonstrations across Britain on Thursday to mark the seventh anniversary of what it described as the ‘so-called liberation of Afghanistan by the US and its allies’.
Protest rallies calling for UK troops to be withdrawn have so far been arranged in 15 towns and cities by local branches of Britain’s biggest peace group network, including six areas of London.
STWC said that in the past seven years, ‘thousands of innocent Afghan civilians have been killed and many more wounded, as the security situation goes from bad to worse’.
A poll last week carried out for the BBC found that more than two-thirds of Britons think UK troops should leave Afghanistan within a year.
Of the 1,013 people polled, 68 percent said the UK’s 8,000 soldiers should leave Afghanistan within 12 months. The number was as high as three-quarters of women and 59 percent among men questioned.
MPs warned of the dangers of ‘mission creep’ when Britain originally sent 3,300 troops to Helmand province over 30 months ago to ostensibly assist with reconstruction efforts.
Since then the number have been more than doubled, while British troops have suffer 118 fatalities, compared with seven in the first four-and-a-half years.