UK's £20bn bill for fighting Iraq and Afghan wars

Fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside the U.S. has cost British taxpayers more than £20billion since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, it emerged yesterday.

The bill includes £18billion for military operations as well as paying for overseas development and aid.

However the £20.34billion total, revealed for the first time in official Whitehall figures, does not include the salaries of soldiers or paying for their long-term injuries and mental health care.



It is also on top of the £35billion annual defence budget.

Costly war: British soldiers on patrol in Helmand province

Afghanistan, where operations began in October 2001, has cost more than Iraq to finance, with £11.1billion spent on the conflict so far.

The total includes £1.2billion on humanitarian, reconstruction and development aid.



THE PRICE OF WAR

All figures are in millions of pounds unless otherwise stated. IRAQ (total across all departments)

2002-03 - £866.3m

2003-04 - £1570.8m

2004-05 - £1084.6m

2005-06 - £1139.6m

2006-07 - £1148.2m

2007-08 - £1584.3m

2008-09 - £1470.55m Ministry of Defence alone (from Treasury reserve) 2009-10 - £358m (estimated)

Department for International Development 2009-10 - £20m

TOTAL: £9.24bn



AFGHANISTAN

Ministry of Defence (from Treasury reserve)

2001-02 - £221m

2002-03 - £311m

2003-04 - £46m

2004-05 - £67m

2005-06 - £199m

2006-07 - £742m

2007-08 - £1,490m

2008-09 - £2,623m

2009-10 - £4,200m (estimated)

Total: £9,899m Humanitarian, reconstruction and development assistance

2001-10 - £1,200million TOTAL: £11.1bn COST OF BOTH WARS = £20.34bn



With no withdrawal date from Afghanistan for Britain's 10,000 troops, the costs are set to rise further.



Former Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed in March that £4billion had been set aside for Afghanistan this year.

Fighting the war in Iraq cost more than £8.2billion, while £557million was given to the country-for development.



The Foreign Office also spent £283million on diplomacy in Iraq and Whitehall spent a further £147million on other programmes such as the 'conflict prevention pool'.

It took the total bill for Iraq, which was invaded in March 2003 and where combat operations ended in April last year, to £9.24billion.



Critics of the wars condemned the figures. Former London mayor Ken Livingstone said the cost of the war in Afghanistan would have funded free tuition in English universities for ten years.

But defence experts argued that the costs were bound to be high.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, a defence analyst with the Royal United Services Institute, said:

'They have been long and sustained operations in difficult geographical locations.



'Simply maintaining thousands of people in such a location takes a lot of money on logistics before you have even started.'

The true cost of the war will become clear only in the decades to come when troops suffering long-term mental and physical injuries seek treatment.



NEW CHIEF GENERAL SIR DAVID RICHARDS



General Sir David Richards

General Sir David Richards is tipped to become the new head of the Armed Forces after impressing David Cameron with his call for urgent change in Afghanistan.



The country's top general is set to become the new Chief of the Defence Staff in the autumn when Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup stands down.



General Richards, who has 40 years of military experience, has called for an end to suggestions that Britain will pull out of Afghanistan imminently.



He wants more 'boots on the ground' in the country.



His appointment could signal a longer haul in Afghanistan for troops, as he has called for Nato allies to help build schools and clinics and create good local governance in volatile Helmand province.