British reach for £ 18 M for the Afghanistan war

LONDON - British Defense Committee in parliament said the British involvement in the war in Afghanistan has cost £ 18 billion taken from the British taxpayers, who now had to be squeezed to pay £ 260 billion for the war imposed on Libya.

This total figure is greater than that predicted by the British finance minister, George Osborne, in March. He predicted the war would cost no more than tens of millions.

But the defense committee confirmed that the figure is not more than expected and they said, "The total cost of operations in Afghanistan is not known (could be more than expected)."

Ministry of Defence (MoD) also told the committee that it was too early to estimate the cost of British military operations in Libya.

The committee stressed that the MoD predicts the country's military action in Afghanistan would cost more than £ 4 billion in 2011 alone. But the military has not revealed the core costs, including maintenance of equipment and training, the report added.

The news comes just shortly after the Defense Ministry announced plans to lay off 28,000 troops and equipment to cut costs in order to handle the funding deficit of £ 38 billion.