Standing in the main police station in the town of Lashkar Gar, Captain Abdul Kareen barked out an order to some 20 soldiers and policemen from the Afghan National Security Forces. In an instant, the officers in green khaki stood to attention, raised their automatic guns and saluted the visiting deputy governor of Helmand province.

Such a scene might seem unremarkable in the capital of Helmand, a region the size of Northern Ireland with a population of some 750,000. Yet less than 24 hours before this meeting, a Taliban suicide bomber came within a few yards of where they stood and blew himself up, killing at least half a dozen of these soldiers’ colleagues.