DHAKA: Military leaders failed to calculate the magnitude of the conflict in Afghanistan, the former head of the British army has told the BBC.

Gen Sir Peter Wall said they thought they had a ‘reasonable force’ for their limited objectives, but he now admits they got it wrong.

The commander in Helmand in 2006, Brig Ed Butler, said troops were ‘underprepared and under-resourced’.

The MoD said it was ‘proud of what we have achieved in Afghanistan’.

Since the conflict began in 2001, 453 British troops have died.

In 2004, the Army was still engaged in the conflict in Iraq and its leaders admit they were aware that they did not have the resources to fight in more than one campaign for any length of time.

But they fulfilled a commitment to send 3,300 troops to Afghanistan as part of the Nato force.

Gen Wall told a BBC Two documentary, ‘We had put forward a plan saying that for the limited objectives that we had set ourselves, this was a reasonable force. And I freely admit now, that calculus was wrong’.

BDST: 1355 HRS, OCT 23, 2014