Brits' Bullet Budget

It's not just Canadian soldiers who are seeing far more combat in Afghanistan over the past year. The British Ministry of Defence has released its own records showing that its forces in Helmand province went through four million bullets last year, about double the amount used the previous year.

Last year the British forces in Afghanistan went through 25,000 artillery shells. That compares with 6,000 shells used by the British in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In correcting previous incorrect figures given Parliament, the British MoD also confirmed that MI6 officers met with Taliban leaders more than half a dozen times last summer.