LONDON, Aug 27, (Agencies): Senior military figures have called for a review of security measures after Prime Minister David Cameron narrowly escaped a possible Taleban attack during a recent trip to Afghanistan, a media report said on Friday.

The prime minister’s helicopter was forced to make an emergency diversion during a trip to see troops in the southern province of Helmand in June after it was suspected insurgents had gained knowledge of the trip.

Two conversations were intercepted by NATO intelligence services in which the Taleban were understood to be plotting an attack on a VIP called the “Big Commander”, the Times said.
The incident deepened concern about the increasingly sophisticated nature of the insurgents’ intelligence operation, the newspaper added.

No shots were fired and Downing Street played it down, but one Whitehall source was quoted as suggesting the threat was “much closer than anyone said at the time”.
Without quoting further military figures, the newspaper said options understood to be under consideration were media blackouts until the prime minister had left a war zone.
This is already common practice and a similar measure was imposed on Defence Secretary Liam Fox during his visit to the country this month.

Other measures included the prime minister and other senior figures only visiting the capital after a trip to Helmand.

Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence said they would never comment on the prime minister’s security arrangements.

Cameron had planned to travel by helicopter from Camp Bastion to Shahzad patrol base after a televised press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

Meanwhile, homemade bombs killed three US troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan on Friday, and a roadside blast tore through a crowded market in the increasingly volatile north, killing three police and two civilians.
No other details about the attacks on the US troops were given by NATO and the identities of those killed were not immediately released.
A total of 55 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this month, including 35 Americans, according to a count by The Associated Press. July was the deadliest month for US forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, with 66 killed.
US troops make up about 100,000 of the 120,000-strong foreign military contingent in Afghanistan, most in the south and east where the Taleban is most deeply entrenched.
Meanwhile, a police official said three Afghan policemen and two civilians were killed and 15 civilians wounded in Thursday evening’s bombing in Kunduz province’s Archi town. The blast went off as residents shopped for food in anticipation of the breaking of the dawn-to-dusk fast observed during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but deputy provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Aqtash said civilians appeared to be the target.
“This was a cruel act of the enemy. There was nothing to link these people to the coalition or to politics,” Aqtash said.
Kunduz, about 150 miles (240 kms) north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, has not traditionally been a Taleban stronghold. However, insurgents have steadily built their presence there since 2007, mostly among ethnic Pashtuns who are a minority in the area. Attacks on a key coalition supply line running south from Tajikistan are a constant menace, along with ambushes of German forces who help provide security.
In establishing a northern foothold, Afghan authorities believe the Taleban use veterans from southern battlefields to help organize local groups, sometimes with help from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which provides recruits from among the Uzbek minority.
“The situation is very bad and dangerous in Kunduz but unfortunately the security officials keep saying things are all right,” Mabubullah Mabub, chairman of the Kunduz provincial council, told AP Thursday. “Over the last two years, the situation has been getting worse.”
Farther east in Badakhshan province, Afghan army commandos aided by US special forces discovered a major weapons cache in the remote village of Nawci on Wednesday, NATO reported. It said weapons found included 78 rockets with launchers, 47 mortar rounds, more than 9,000 rounds of ammunition, and 24 rocket-propelled grenades. All were destroyed.
The town is believed to be a safe haven for Taleban fighters and drug smugglers, as well as a conduit for foreign fighters arriving from neighboring Pakistan, NATO said.