LONDON, Dec 20: British Defence Secretary John Hutton compared the Taliban and Al Qaeda to the Nazis and said western forces faced a long fight to defeat insurgents in Afghanistan, in an interview on Saturday.

Hutton told The Times newspaper that troops in the violence-scarred country were defending British values in the same way they did in World War II.

“We know that we must tackle the threat at source, it is not just going to go away,” he said.

“It is a struggle against fanatics that may not challenge our borders but challenges our way of life in the same way the Nazis did.” After Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed on Thursday that most British forces would pull out of Iraq by the end of July next year, Hutton said British soldiers would be in Afghanistan for the long haul.

“We will stay there as long as is necessary to secure all of our objectives – it’s going to be years,” the minister said.—AFP