2,753 soldiers killed, £258bn spent... but top general says we're only 'half way there' on tenth anniversary of invasion of Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai said: ‘We’ve done terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people. This is the greatest shortcoming of our government and our international partners.’

In recent months Taliban fanatics have carried out a string of brazen attacks.

The coalition launched Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001 after the 9/11 atrocity in New York in an effort to track down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, destroy terror training camps and overthrow  the Taliban regime which had sheltered extremists.

But a swift victory was followed by a decade of war that has claimed the lives of 2,700 Nato troops, including 382 Britons, and some  10,000 civilians.