British troops in southern Afghanistan are winning the fight against the Taliban but there is still work to do until the "tide turns", their commander, Brigadier Ed Butler, said Friday.
Butler, back in Britain on a brief tour to update collegaues on the operation, said officers in Helmand province were now comfortable with the number of soldiers available to them.
Earlier this month, London announced it would send an extra 900 troops to southern Afghanistan to boost its contingent in the region to 4,400 after meeting a fiercer-than-expected resistance from Taliban militants.
The British deployment is due to take control of a NATO-led force in Helmand around the end of the month.
Talking about the mission, Butler said: "We are winning and the plan is sound but the boys are working very hard in some very extreme conditions."
His troops had taken part in some "very successful" operations in Helmand in recent days to tackle the threat from the Taliban.
"It is too early to say that the tide has turned, but we are overwhelmingly defeating the Taliban on every occasion that we have clashed with them," the commander of British forces in Afghanistan said.
"We knew it was going to be tough and we knew that the Taliban would test our resilience and possibly in some cases we have been a little surprised by the ferocity and persistence of the Taliban.
"But hopefully it will not be too long before the tide does turn."
Six British soldiers have been killed in clashes with suspected Taliban fighters since the start of June.
