LONDON (Agencies) - The former chief of British special forces in Afghanistan on Saturday accused the British government of having "blood on its hands". Military operations in Afghanistan were "worthless", with British Nato forces unable to hold ground against Taliban insurgents, the former chief of British special forces in an interview. Speaking for the first time since he stepped down as the commander of British Special Air Service (SAS) troops in Afghanistan, Major Sebastian Morley accused the Ministry of Defence of being "cavalier at best, criminal at worst". In a further attack he accused Quentin Davies, the Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, of telling an "unacceptable lie" in the wake of the deaths of four of his soldiers. Major Morley said his warnings over the safety of the Snatch Land Rover were repeatedly ignored and that troops fighting in Afghanistan are severely undermined by a lack of resources. He said: "I had to resign. I had warned them (the MoD) time and time again that there were going to be needless deaths if we were not given the right equipment, and they ignored this advice. There is blood on their hands." In the aftermath of their deaths Davies claimed it was British Army commanders who chose which vehicles to use to send troops out in and that sometimes they might choose the wrong equipment. He later said he had not meant to cause offence by his comments. It is these comments, Major Morley said, that have prompted him to speak publicly about his concerns over the Afghanistan campaign. "It was an extremely difficult decision to resign, as the Army had been my life," he said. "I did not go public and have never spoken about it on record before, but I feel it has become necessary." He adds: "A government minister is on record telling a lie about four deaths, and this is unacceptable. There was no other vehicle to use. The simple truth is that the protection on these vehicles is inadequate and this led to the unnecessary deaths." In wide-ranging interviews with The Daily Telegraph and Tatler magazine, Maj Morley, a contemporary of David Cameron at Eton, raised considerable doubts over the current conduct of the campaign that he believed was being severely undermined by a lack of troops and resources. Maj Morley, who started his Army career in the Black Watch, said: "The operations that we are conducting are so worthless. It's just crazy to think we hold that ground or have any influence on what goes on beyond the bases." The significant increase in the death toll over the last nine months, that has seen the number of British fatalities increase by 50 per cent to 149 dead, has suggested that this summer could be the bloodiest so far. "I don't think we have even scratched the surface as far as this conflict goes," the SAS officer said. He added: "This is the equivalent to the start of the Vietnam conflict, there is much more to come." Maj Morley, the grandson of the late newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook, said he had had "enormous backing" from both "subalterns and generals" with the Army but he urged some senior officers to have "the courage of their convictions" to speak out against the problems in the military. However, he felt in some areas there had been less backing. "It is just utterly disillusioning that if someone speaks out about the inadequacy of what is being done to protect our troops, they get their reputation and their word questioned." A MoD spokesman said: "The security challenge is manageable by the available forces and the overriding mood of the local population is one of optimism and hope. British forces are better equipped than ever before, with new technology and state of the art armoured vehicles continuing to arrive in Afghanistan. "We accept that Snatch is not suitable for high risk environments but it is adequate for the job it is given." He added that Quentin Davies had already made clear that any offence caused by remarks he made on the issue was entirely inadvertent.