Operation Snakebite

In December 2007, Stephen Grey, a Sunday Times reporter, was under fire from the enemy as British and American forces struggled to liberate the Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala. Sheltering from the bullets behind an American-armoured Humvee, Grey turned his head to witness a scene of carnage- two cars full of refugees had been riddled with gunfire, and several had died, including children. In retaliation Taliban positions were pounded with gunfire, and bombs dropped on their compounds, to the cheers of the soldiers. A day later, as the operation continued, a mine exploded just yards from Grey, killing a British soldier.

Who was responsible for all this bloodshed? And what purpose did it serve? In the heat of the moment and the chaos of warfare, it was hard to establish the truth.

But in the months that followed Grey - an award-winning investigative reporter - returned again and again to the events of those days, listening to accounts of those involved and making a number of return trips to the country. The result is Operation Snakebite- a powerful and shocking account of the reality of modern warfare, and the meaning of military sacrifice.

Told as a simple and compelling story of one military venture that lasted only several days, Operation Snakebite draws on more than 200 interviews with those involved in Britain's war in southern Afghanistan - from private soldiers to the Chief of the General Staff, from Afghan leaders to Nato's chief commander, from Special Force operatives to the diplomats and 'other agencies' involved - to reveal the war within the war- the battle not only for the hearts and minds of Afghans, but between soldiers and spies, between commanders in the field and arm-chair generals in Whitehall, between allies bitterly divided by purpose . . . and between a soldier and his conscience.