Report: 7,000 British soldiers unfit to fight on front line

(Xinhua) -- Almost 7,000 British soldiers are unfit to fight, leaving front-line troops "dangerously exposed," The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

    Statistics from the Ministry of Defense show that one in 14 soldiers is sick or injured at a time when every regiment of 600 faces a shortfall of 100 men because of problems with recruitment and the numbers leaving the Army, the paper quoted the report as saying.

    The seriousness of the shortages faced by the Army is highlighted in the spring deployment to Afghanistan.

    Troop shortages are so acute that at least six battalions are being sent to do the job of four battalions when the next brigade deploys to Afghanistan this spring, the report said.

    Figures in the report show that the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment has left behind 50 long-term sick troops while the battalion is fighting in Helmand province.

    While the 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery had almost 10 percent of its 388 gunners unfit for duty in Iraq last year.

    For at least a year, military chiefs have been aware that the strain of two substantial missions in Iraq and Afghanistan would prove a massive drain on manpower and now the Armed Forces are at the very limit of being able to provide personnel for the front line, the paper said.

    The Ministry of Defense was told in a critical House of Commons defense committee report that the armed forces were losing large numbers of experienced personnel fed up with constantly being away from home.

    Liam Fox, the shadow defense secretary, said the government had overstretched the Armed Forces to the point where it has led to "some very real consequences on our abilities to fight on the front line". The shortages could "endanger the safety of personnel" and indicated a "retention crisis" in the military, according to the report.

    "The forces pride themselves on their fitness and are well known for it but there will always be a small element suffering from sickness or injury and not fit to deploy to an operational theatre," an Army spokesman said.

    The use of elements from a number of battalions was "not new" and battle casualty replacements were "provided as and when required by the Chain of Command," the spokesman added.

    Britain has over 6,000 soldiers based in Afghanistan, and will increase to around 7,700 over the course of the year, while it has around 5,000 troops in Iraq

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