02/02/2014 Reporters

Now on BBC News it is time for this week's reporters.

Hello and welcome to a special edition of reporters, as Britain and

America are prepared to withdraw their last remaining troops from

Afghanistan this year, we have a range of reports from correspondents

across the country on challenges facing Afghanistan in 2014. In this

week's programme... Heading home, David Lloyd joins US forces as tens

of thousands prepare to leave Afghanistan. The international

forces leave Afghanistan facing an uncertain future, with insurgents

threatening much of the countryside and a weak and corrupt government.

Caroline visits the British backed training facility that has its first

female officers. TRANSLATION: violence against women is a constant

story on the news here and women are far from equal in a society dollar

by men. Tackling the Taliban, on patrol with Afghan forces.

Afghanistan in 2014 is the country faces an uncertain future, we have

been finding out how Afghans feel about their prospects for peace.

Afghans here and across the country are left to wonder and worry what

happens next. Whether their lives will get better or will they get

much worse? In the final flight of the Dambusters, we catch up with the

British RAF legendary 617 Squadron ahead of their last mission in

Afghanistan. For the men and women of the Dambusters, this is the end

of an error. It is the last time they will fly these tornadoes.

Welcome. 2014 marks a major year of change for Afghanistan. By the end

of the year, the country will be on its own and new Afghan president is

due to be elected and British and American forces will be gone. On the

US side, President Obama has pledged to 34,000 American troops, half of

them, we'll leave it the end of the month, the rest will follow later in

the year. We joins US forces in the region in Kurdistan. All-terrain

armoured vehicles that were rubbish into production that are rushed into

production to deal with roadside bombs in Afghanistan are now on

their way out of the country as the war winds down. They are flown over

the stunning snow peaks in northern Afghanistan towards a main

collection centre before their onward flight out of the country.

International forces leave Afghanistan facing an uncertain

future, with insurgents threatening much of the countryside and a weak

and corrupt government. The war is any not because it has been one but

because it is on a timetable drawn up in London and Washington. Follow

the lives lost and money spent, it could have been so much better.

Troops bore the same plane, this is redeployment on an industrial scale.

Buying a round-the-clock as America's withdrawal moves up a

gear. The relief is visible as men relax for the first time after seven

months in Afghanistan. On the ground, the trend of base in

Kurdistan already feels a long way from the war. -- Kyrgyzstan. It is a

running Trail within our parameters and folks like to go out there for

the first time, started the compressed, they will go out there

and walk on the trials and for them in the last six months, the first

time they have not been shot at or no mortar rounds and they get to see

green trees and take a deep breath and relax. For some, catching up on

sleep before they make the long journey home is another. Their

mission this time has been to hand over to the Afghan National Army.

Nick developed, a medic working in the US Marines has come out of

Helmand province after his second tour. I love Afghanistan. I was very

home. The Afghan National Army are doing their part. As far as the

Taliban goes, they are still doing their part. It is going to be a cat

announced game. The Taliban will do something and then the ANA will

counteract. I don't think it is the end of the war. We'll be back there

sometime. A final journey home is through one of the world's more

secure -- unusual security checks that allows assault rifles through

and baggage. The Kurdistan government wants this base closed by

July. The US will lose its only military footprint in Central Asia.

-- Kyrgyzstan. Britain pulled out nearly 4000 of its troops last year

and as its remaining, troops prepare to leave Afghanistan later this

year, one of the UK's lasting legacies is its training of Afghan

forces. It has helped set up a training academy nickname Sandhurst

in the sand after the elite British School and it is training its first

female cadets. We have been speaking to the first Afghan women trainers.

Afghanistan was like Army has never been afraid to fight. This country

's reputation as the graveyard of empires speaks for itself. Now,

rising from the plains outside Kabul, buildings that will form a

permanent home of officer academy. Aimed at instilling leadership and a

British Army ethos perhaps. This lieutenant has joined her British

colleagues here is the first Afghan female trainer to arrive in what has

been nickname Sandhurst in the sand where tents so as -- serve as

temporary classrooms. Inside, the Afghan trainers themselves have been

trained to teach. The tenant is 28 and comes from an Afghan family --

Army family. Her British mentors are keen to make sure that women are

treated equally here, and equality that Afghanistan has yet to achieve.

TRANSLATION: she says violence against women is a constant story on

the news here. Women are far from equal in society dominated by men.

In the gym here, though, Afghan male officers and trainers are having to

get used to training alongside women. Including British instructor

staff Sergeant Kate Lord. She's teaching the Afghan silence that

have arrived. It is exciting and nice to be part of something new and

history. My past the roles have been completely different. It is nice to

be meant touring and have 1-to-1 mentoring. You do feel you are

making a difference. The academy aims to train around 100 female

national army officers every year all around the 10th of the total.

The first female cadets will be chosen this April and they will

start training here in June. The hope is that the Sandhurst ethos

will translate to this very different culture and bring

leadership the Army wants. An Army increasingly bearing the brunt of

the fight against the Taliban with no end in sight. As US and UK troops

withdraw from Afghanistan this year, what has been achieved? Are

they leaving in Afghanistan that is any safer than before they came?

There are growing signs that the Taliban is making a concerted

comeback. Afghan army forces gave BBC cameraman rare access as they

confronted the Taliban advance in rural Helmand province. Traffic

stops as shots ring out. This is the main road through Helmand province.

The police returned fire. Fighting a shadowy enemy that is growing in

strength here all the time. The telephone use these cars to ram a

police convoy. Every morning after prayers this police officer goes out

searching for roadside bombs that have been laid overnight. Today, he

says, he diffused six. This is the Hall made by one police unit in a

week. Including shells, ammunition, suicide vest components and

explosives. Security here feels far worse than at the peak of British

and American involvement two years ago. They have now withdrawn from

the countryside into a handful of base is ahead of their pullout at

the end of the year. This driver says the Taliban are like evil

spirits and when he set out on a journey, it he does not count

himself among the living until he arrives. Afghan police set out from

a base with British troops -- where British troops moved until a year

ago. They patrol trap pockmarked by frequent explosions. The area of

control is very small. Beyond the canal, the green shoots of this

year's Poppy crop are coming through. But she was a record

harvest. Most of the world's illegal opium comes from Helmand province.

After a half-hearted patrol, police returned to relative safety. Losing

off a view rounds over the hill. It is not all bad news, the police are

far better trained and equipped, are diffusing many bombs, seizing

explosives and ammunition, it is not peace. Was David Cameron right when

he recently called this mission accomplished? Yes, the army, the

police are now capable of doing the mission. You are not going to lose

Helmand? We're not going to lose. No matter what happens. There is no

question of losing any sight of Helmand province all Kandahar. A

nation scarred by war is still not at peace. Afghanistan has seen

foreign armies come and go. The worst of the fighting tearing the

country apart. That was after the Russians left in 1989. Common eating

in the rise of the Taliban, the fear is that this year it could happen

again. The Taliban are also clear and present David -- danger in

neighbouring Pakistan. A string of attacks have killed more than 100

people since the start of the year. There is a huge debate in the

country whether to talk to the Pakistani Taliban or fight them.

People are growing increasingly frustrated with the leaders for not

making a decision. Be ironed every statistic, after every militant

attack in Pakistan, is a scene like this. Here, they are mourning the

loss of a man who was a father, husband, brother and son. He was

killed by a suicide bomber close to the Pakistani headquarters. From a

modest background, he had been the first in his family to join the

military. They say he wanted to serve his country. TRANSLATION: He

was so happy he was a soldier, says his brother. He used a look at

pictures where he was wearing his uniform. He was very proud. This is

where he and 12 other people were killed in the bombing claimed by the

Pakistani Taliban. It is one of a series of attacks in recent days,

and it has put immense pressure on the leaders of the country to break

out of their apparent indecision and make a concerted move into stopping

the bloodshed. With opinion on the right thing to do about the Taliban

is divided. We feel that military options should be when everything

else has been exhausted. Peace should be given a chance through

dialogue. Others think that after Robbie Killingbeck needs to be a

major army operation against the Pakistani Taliban as soon as

possible. The confusion that is being created regarding whether the

government should be talking to them or not is, I feel, giving more

strength and time to the TTP to regroup and reorganise themselves.

Thousands of Pakistanis have now faced the same fate. The uniform

this man was so proud of wearing has been returned to his family,

shredded and bloodstained. They want to ensure other families don't go

through the same suffering. This year, we will also see Afghans

choosing a new president. Campaigning for presidential

elections begins this week, and the elections are expected to take place

on the fifth. The candidates include several warlords who were prominent

in the civil war of the 1990s. 21 years ago, at the height of the

Afghan war, hundreds of people were massacred here in couple. This man

lost his father and brother-in-law and watched mass rape. TRANSLATION:

Men stuck a knife into week Iran being carried by a woman for

protection. 78 raped her. The man named in a number of a report on who

carried out the massacre is now running for president. He denies

killing anyone in the civil war. Believe me, no one was killed by my

hand. You believe it or not, but God knows this. Were men and you'll

command not responsible? I was the commander of many people, but as I

have told, the programme of the infighting came from outside. It was

imposed on Afghan people. In 2010, he and other warlords won immunity

for crimes committed your into civil war. Three others are also running

as vice presidential candidates. He was also named in the US official

account has the mental of the mastermind of the 911 attacks. --

mentor. Afghans are worried about the lack

of jobs, corruption, insecurity, and what will happen when foreign troops

leave. Any of the choices facing them as presidential candidates are

stuck in the politics of the past. Some think these men are Great Wall

leaders, defeating the Russians, and they could be respected for it.

Others think they should go to jail -- war leaders. Democracy still has

shallow roots here. With such dramatic changes on the

horizon, how do Afghans feel about their prospects in 2014? We have

been to one place in Parwan Province. The year has started with

the mildest of winters and the greatest uncertainty. Afghans have

lived through unpredictable times before. This main road running north

was the route taken by Soviet soldiers when they pulled out in the

winter of 1989. This moment is different. This man fought against

Soviet troops, but now he wants NATO forces to stay. Our own forces are

still weak, he tells me. We aren't able to protect ourselves. There is

Taliban here, supported, he says, by neighbouring Pakistan. There is an

echo of that history now in this year when NATO forces are pulling

out after more than a decade in Afghanistan. Yet again, Afghans here

and across the country are left to wonder, to worry, what happens next.

Will their own lives get better or will they get much worse? This

farmer already knows the answer. We find him cleaning his assault rifle.

It is not the only weapon he has hidden at home. There are gun

battles almost every night in this village, involving the Taliban,

other armed groups, or criminals. TRANSLATION: no-one cares about us.

Corrupt commanders attack us, the international community doesn't care

about us, the government doesn't care either. Afghanistan has changed

over the past decade. This woman has seen a change for the better.

TRANSLATION: I am a housewife, a mother, a good teacher. Two years

ago I became the school principal, the first woman to take this job in

my village. She wants to be a role model for women here, including her

daughters. That is why she has decided to run for a seat on the

Provincial Council. TRANSLATION: We want to keep the concessions we have

gained. If the foreigners leave, we will be in big trouble. They have

supported us in many ways, even paying teachers' salaries. In

Afghanistan, every season has its rituals, every situation is rules.

-- every year its worries. This is their gear that could make all the

difference. They are the Dambusters, and 70 years ago they

helped turn the tide of the Second World War with daring raids over

Germany. But, they have now flown for the last time in Afghanistan,

before they disband next year. Even on the days, when the weather

is not nice, when things are not going well, it is not about what we

are doing. We are here to support the guys on the ground who are much

more vulnerable than we are. Ben and his fellow at the aviators have

provided air cover. Now, they will move on to new jobs in different

squadrons. The planes themselves will be handed on to two squadrons

that are taking over. But for the men and women of the Dambusters, it

is the end of an era. It is the last time they will fly these planes, and

foremost, although not all of them, it is a last tour of Afghanistan.

They will reform, and a squadron will be a new one. As the squadron

says goodbye, there will be sadness as it does its separate ways. Formed

with just one task in 1953, the Dambusters have endured, and one day

they will fly again. That is all from the special edition of

reporters, -- Reporters. After much of the UK Intuit a stormy

start, and little quieter in the day ahead. --