Are UK Troops Staying Under Wraps for Political Reasons?

Were British troops in Afghanistan told to stay out of the spotlight during the election?

Britain has not lost a soldier in Afghanistan since the day after Gordon Brown called the general election - that's more than three weeks.

Yet the fatality on 7 April was the third in a week, and throughout the early part of this year the grim news came frequently, sometimes five times in a week.

The Ministry of Defence has been applying an election "purdah" to journalists' embeds or statements by senior officers about current operations there.

Has it also ordered the troops to limit their activities so as to avoid casualties in this sensitive period?

Senior people deny that explicit orders of this kind have been given. Is that right, or could such a change in the pattern of operations have taken place without it being formally ordered?

By: Brant