Officers have also warned that unless restrictions are relaxed on when soldiers can open fire the Taliban may inflict major losses.

Commanders complain that John Reid, the defence secretary, has tried to prevent news of attacks coming out and that they cannot make even the most minor military decision without referring it to his office for approval. So far, actions in southern Afghanistan have left at least five soldiers wounded, two seriously.

“The government is hiding the truth from the public,” one senior officer said last week. “I am sure they believe that if Afghanistan turns sour it will bring down the prime minister.

“If they don’t send more troops than the single battle-group that is going now, and allow them to do their job properly by giving them robust rules of engagement, then I can pretty much guarantee it will turn sour.”

A week ago two British soldiers and an Afghan were seriously wounded when a Taliban suicide bomber rammed his car into a Land Rover in Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province.

Three other soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb two weeks ago and there have been at least two other unreported suicide bombings on the British provincial reconstruction team in Lashkar Gar, defence sources said. Yesterday four Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb north of Kandahar.

Last week the Ministry of Defence discussed the demand to send an extra infantry battalion of 600 men to Helmand — a Taliban stronghold — to reinforce British paratroopers due to arrive next month.

Reid, however, has capped the British contribution to the Nato force in the south at 3,300 and has defended the rules of engagement. The MoD denied receiving any demand for more troops, adding that the current force was “robust and powerful”. It refused to comment on claims from defence sources that one British soldier lost a leg and another was critical. A spokesman did admit the victims were seriously wounded.

The claim that the government is trying to micro-manage the Afghanistan operation to ensure that it does not threaten the prime minister’s position is backed up by MoD civil servants.

“There is an arrogance and control-freak mentality that has resulted in the military hardly being able to move without the minister’s team knowing about it and approving it first,” one said.

Military commanders have discussed surreptitiously ditching “the white card” on which the peacekeeping rules of engagement are written, as the only way of doing their job properly on the ground.

One admitted this had been done on a number of occasions in southern Iraq. “There is no way you can defend yourself properly against insurgents using peacekeeping rules of engagement,” he said.

A surge in violence in Helmand has been directly linked to the arrival of British troops and the counter-narcotics campaign on which the UK takes the lead. The Taliban has announced that 600 suicide bombers are ready to mount attacks on British troops.

There are just under 1,000 British soldiers in Helmand. That figure will grow to about 4,500 over the coming weeks before falling to 3,300 once the army base, Camp Bastion, is built. A further 1,000 are based in Kabul.

Warmer weather has opened up mountain passes along the Pakistan border, making it easier for the Taliban to attack troops and then retreat across the border. The biggest attack was a raid by several hundred Taliban fighters on a coalition base at Girishk in northeastern Helmand.

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