Warning over aid after troop sacrifice

The Cabinet minister said he wanted to see donor countries meeting in Tokyo this weekend “face up” to their responsibilities following troop withdrawal with a commitment to support Afghanistan through a “transformation” up to 2025.

Mr Mitchell, who has returned from a two-day trip to Afghanistan, said in return the Afghan government should fight corruption, encourage private investment and promote women’s rights.

The Cabinet minister paid tribute to the “extraordinary valour” of British troops in Afghanistan, saying he had been in the country when Guardsman Craig Andrew Roderick and Guardsman Apete Saunikalou Ratumaiyale Tuisovurua of the 1st Battalion the Welsh Guards and Warrant Officer Leonard Perran Thomas of the Royal Corps of Signals were killed by an Afghan policeman in what he called a “dreadful” attack.

In a briefing at the Department for International Development, Mr Mitchell raised the case of the former Afghan president Mohammad Najibullah, who was killed by the Taliban in 1996 after the Soviet withdrawal from the country.

“In this context it should not be forgotten that the reason why the regime of Najibullah ended with him hanging from a lamppost in Kabul was not because he was defeated militarily but because the Russians stopped paying the bills,” he said.

Mr Mitchell said the Afghan Government needed confidence that it would not be “deserted” by the international community.

A man in an Afghan army uniform has shot and wounded coalition troops in eastern Afghanistan, in the latest incident of an insider attack.

Nato said wounded were being treated but did not say how many were hurt or provide any other details about the attack which occurred on Tuesday in eastern Wardak province’s Sayed Abad district.