A senior army officer has claimed Britain is sustaining higher casualties in Afghanistan than official figures suggest. Major Jon Swift, who is serving in the Helmand province, has questioned whether the public are being given a true picture of what is happening on the frontline.

He condemned the operation in Afghanistan as "politically driven". His comments were published in the internal Royal Fusiliers newsletter and initially placed on a regimental website before being quickly removed.

Meanwhile, another British Army major serving in Afghanistan has condemned the RAF as "utterly, utterly useless" in three emails. They also indicated that more helicopters and manpower were "desperately" needed for the operation to be successful.

The emails were penned by an unnamed officer based with 3 Para in the troubled southern province of Helmand. Major Swift said soldiers were often patched up and sent back out to fight without the injury being recorded.

"The scale of casualties has not been properly reported and shows no sign of reducing," he said.

An MoD spokesman denied it had ordered the comments be removed from any website or tried to "gag" Major Swift.