By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:29 AM on 04th November 2009
Five British soldiers have been killed by a rogue policeman as they drank tea inside a military compound in Afghanistan.
The gunman opened fire on the soldiers - only one of whom was armed - with an AK47 after they had removed their body armour and helmets.
He fled the scene on a motorbike, sparking a huge manhunt in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand Province, where the attack took place.
Afghanistan
Evacuation: Casualties are unloaded at a hospital in Helmand in the wake of the shooting which left five dead British soldiers dead
Afghanistan
The families of the dead soldiers - three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police- have been informed.
Another six UK servicemen and two Afghan police officers were injured in the incident. One is critically wounded.
Abdul Ahad Helmandwal, head of the district council in Nad Ali, described how Afghan police and British forces were drinking tea together when the attacker opened fire.
'He first fired on the commander of the police and his deputy then on the British soldiers. He escaped on a motorbike,' he said.
The deaths make this the single bloodiest year for British armed forces since the Falklands War.
As the desperate search for the policeman continued, tribal sources claimed he was a man named Gulbuddin who may have been dispute with his local commander over being moved between units.
Another source said his family had links to the Taliban.
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It is possible the gunman, who had been with the police for two years, was a deliberate plant sent to infiltrate the force or that he had acted under pressure from insurgents. Similar tactics were used in Iraq.
Investigators believe he may have had an accomplice.
Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said: 'The soldiers concerned were mentoring Afghan police. They were working inside and living inside an Afghan national police checkpoint.
'It would appear, and it is our initial understanding, that an individual Afghan policeman possibly acting with another started firing within the checkpoint before fleeing the scene.'
He stressed that the attack did not come as a result of any breakdown or fight between British and Afghan forces.
A military spokesman added: 'It's our understanding that one individual Afghan National Policeman, possibly in conjunction with another, went rogue.'
Afghanistan
Deadly: The soldiers were not wearing their helmets or body armour when they were shot in Nad-e'Ali district, Helmand
The group came under attack after entering a building inside a secure zone where they were to meet Afghan officials. They had passed through at least one checkpoint.
After entering a room off a courtyard, they appear to have laid down their weapons and removed their helmets and body armour as proof of their trust in their hosts.
The policeman then opened fire without warning. Only one of the British soldiers was armed as the group came under a hail of bullets.
Casualties were evacuated to the hospital at the main British army base Camp Bastion.
Several wounded men were flown in by Medical Emergency Response Teams using Chinook helicopters and a US Black Hawk.
The injured were rushed from the landing pad to the emergency department by ambulance where hospital medics and consultants were waiting en masse.
Eight are still being treated though it is unclear if the casualties are British or Afghans.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the soldiers describing their deaths as a 'terrible loss'.
'My thoughts, condolences and sympathies go to their families, loved ones and colleagues. I know that the whole country too will mourn their loss,' he said.
'They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
'I pay tribute to their courage, skill and determination. They will never be forgotten.'
Afghanistan
Gunned down: A bloodied military flak jacket lies abandoned on the ground
Tory leader David Cameron said: 'I was deeply shocked to hear of the deaths of five British soldiers in a single incident in Helmand Province, and the horrific circumstances in which it appears they died.
'I pay tribute, as will the whole country, to their professionalism and their courage, and send my condolences to their families and their friends.'
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth added: 'It continues to be a difficult year in Afghanistan for our brave people who are operating within the most challenging area of the country.
'We owe it to them to show the resolve that they exhibit every day in building security and stability in Afghanistan and protecting the UK from the threat of terrorism.'
As well as the inquiry by the British Military Police, the local chief of the ANP and the Afghan National Director of Security have begun an investigation at the scene.
The Grenadier Guards were working in a so-called Omlette team, helping to advise the ANP and Afghan National Army in training, tactics and patrol methods.
The shooting is the equal-worst loss of life in a single incident in three years, on a par with five soldiers who were killed by inter-linked bombs in July.
Only once have more members of the British Armed Forces died together throughout the whole war - when 14 were killed in the Nimrod crash in 2006.
The attack also makes 2009 the bloodiest year for the armed forces since the Falklands War.
Enlarge Map of Helmand province in Afghanistan
The attack took place in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand Province
Up until now, the worst period since the Falklands was 2007, when 89 members of the armed forces died on active service.
The latest deaths bring this year's figure to 93. The death toll in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 now stands at 229.
On Saturday, Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, of the Royal Logistic Corps, died near Sangin in central Helmand Province.
He had been due to fly back to the UK for a two-week break seven days later.
The attack comes just two days after Hamid Karzai was re-elected president after his rival pulled out of a run-off, planned for this weekend.
Olaf Schmid,
Killed on his final mission: Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid died this weekend
Peter Galbraith, who left his post as deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan amid disagreements over the presidential elections, said the 'rushed' bid to train extra Afghan officers for the poll meant such deaths were to be expected.
'It is a terrible tragedy but it is, I won't quite say inevitable, but it is not surprising,' he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
'The process of police training and recruiting has been very rushed. Normally the police get an eight-week training course. That is actually very short and there isn't a lot of vetting of police before they are hired.
'And actually, in recent months, they shortened the training programme from eight weeks to five weeks because they wanted to get more police boots on the ground in advance of the elections.
'So there was a real rush to recruit an additional 10,000, particularly in the south, particularly in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.
'So it is not totally surprising that people were recruited who may have had Taliban sympathies or were infiltrated into the police by the Taliban although I don't know yet whether in this particular episode that is exactly what happened.'
The undermining of the legitimacy of the Afghan government because of the 'chaos' surrounding the election had also 'created opportunities for the Taliban', he said, sending his condolences to the families of those killed in the incident.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1225090/Five-British-soldiers-killed-Afghanistan-single-attack-Taliban.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0VtElXDOn
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LONDON (Reuters) - An Afghan policeman has shot dead five British soldiers at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, the defense ministry in London said on Wednesday.
The gunman opened fire at a military compound in Helmand province on Tuesday, a day after Afghan election officials canceled a presidential run-off vote and gave President Hamid Karzai a second term in office.
British soldiers returned fire, but the policeman escaped and is still at large, a defense ministry spokeswoman said. An investigation into the shooting is under way.
"An Afghan national policeman from the checkpoint started firing without warning before anyone could really respond," the spokesman said. "Every effort is being put into hunting him down."
Escalating violence in the U.S.-led war, a sharp rise in British casualties over the summer and concerns over corruption in Karzai's government have created a political headache for Prime Minister Gordon Brown before an election due by June.
Brown has faced criticism over troop numbers, tactics and equipment levels, including suggestions that a lack of helicopters has put British soldiers at risk.
Former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, who chairs a parliamentary security committee, said Britain should withdraw most of its troops and focus on security at home.he wrote in an article for the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday.
"It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate instead on using the money saved to secure our own borders (and) gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain,"
Brown, who argues that NATO efforts in Afghanistan have helped to prevent attacks in Britain, said the whole country would mourn the loss of the soldiers. A total of 229 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
"The death of five brave soldiers in a single incident is a terrible loss," he said. "They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Britain is the second largest contributor to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, with 9,000 troops fighting the Taliban and helping to train local police and soldiers.
Afghan election officials canceled a presidential run-off election on Monday after Afghan President Hamid Karzai's rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew citing serious concerns about the election.
(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch in Kabul; Editing by Charles Dick)
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Six soldiers killed in Afghanistan repatriated to Britain
The bodies of six British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, including five shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman, are being repatriated to the UK.
Published: 2:49AM GMT 10 Nov 2009
Five of the six British soldiers killed in Afghanistan are being repatriated
(top row, from left) Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith and Sergeant Matthew Telford (bottom row from left) Guardsman James Major and Corporal Steven Boote Photo: PA
Serjeant Phillip Scott of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, who was killed in Afghanistan, is being repatriated
Serjeant Phillip Scott of 3rd Battalion The Rifles
Hundreds of people are expected to line the streets of Wootton Bassett, Wilts, to pay their respects as the flag-draped coffins are driven from RAF Lyneham nearby.
Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40; Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37 and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, of the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police.
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They were shot dead by an Afghan police officer at a secure checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province on November 3 in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
Two days later Serjeant Phillip Scott, 30, of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by an improvised explosive device near Sangin in Helmand.
After a private repatriation ceremony for their families at RAF Lyneham, hearses (A vehicle for conveying a coffin to a church or cemetery.)carrying their coffins will pass along the High Street at Wootton Bassett.
Crowds have appeared along the route to pay their respects since the bodies of British service personnel began being brought home through RAF Lyneham in 2007.
The cortege ( 1. A train of attendants, as of a distinguished person; a retinue.
2.
1. A ceremonial procession.
2. A funeral procession.) will then continue to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.
As Regimental Sergeant Major, WO1 Chant, who was born in Walthamstow, east London, was the top non-commissioned officer in the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards.
On the day he was killed he was due to be told he had been awarded a commission as an officer.
He left his pregnant widow, Nausheen Chant, and three children from a previous marriage, Connor, 16, Adam, 10, and Victoria, eight.
Sgt Telford, from Grimsby, left behind his widow, Kerry, and two sons, Harry, four, and Callum, nine.
Mrs Telford, 33, spoke of her dilemma about how to break the news of her husband's death to Harry, telling the Grimsby Telegraph: ''I want to be able to tell him that he's in heaven now and that he's gone to be with the angels.''
Guardsman Major, also from Grimsby, was the youngest of those killed in the shooting.
He was due to turn 19 on Thursday this week but never had the chance to enjoy the birthday cake and presents his family had sent out to Afghanistan.
Cpl Webster-Smith, who grew up in Camarthen, west Wales, and lived in Brackley, Northamptonshire, was on his second tour of Afghanistan.
His girlfriend, Emma Robinson, wrote in a message on his Facebook page: ''You have made me so happy and we have had so many happy memories together which will never be forgotten. I love you always.''
Cpl Boote, from Birkenhead, Liverpool, was a soldier in the Territorial Army who had volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan.
He worked as a security team leader at a local Tesco store and had hoped to join the police when he returned to Britain.
Sjt Scott, who was born in Malton, North Yorks, deployed to Afghanistan in September alongside his brother Robin, also a sergeant in 3 Rifles.
He left behind his widow, Ellen, and children Ellie, three, and Michael, one.
A total of 232 UK troops have died since the mission in Afghanistan began in October 2001.
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Renegade Afghan soldier kills 3 British troops - source
13 Jul 2010 08:22:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 13 (Reuters) - A renegade Afghan soldier killed three British troops during a joint patrol on Tuesday in southern Helmand province, a provincial security source told Reuters.
Two more British soldiers were wounded in the attack which happened near Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, where some 9,000 British troops are based as part of the NATO-led force.
NATO said in a statement that three of its soldiers were killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan, but gave no further details. (Reporting by Ismail Sameem; Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox and Ron Popeski) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan) (sayed.salahuddin@thomsonreuters.com; Kabul newsroom: +93 799 335 285)) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
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US civilians killed in Afghanistan
Posted 43 minutes ago
An Afghan soldier has opened fire at a training base in northern Afghanistan, leading to the deaths of two US civilian trainers.
A spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force says the suspected shooter and another Afghan soldier were also killed.
The incident took place at Camp Shaheen, an Afghan army training base, outside Mazar-e-Sharif.
Afghanistan's ministry of defence and Isaf are investigating the shootings.
Last week, an Afghan soldier killed three UK troops in Helmand province.
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NATO Kills 5 Afghan Troops in ‘Friendly Fire’ Bombing
July 07, 2010, 9:01 AM EDT
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(Updates with U.S. training of Afghan security forces in seventh paragraph.)
By Eltaf Najafizada and Jonathan Tirone
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- NATO fighter planes bombed Afghan troops preparing to ambush Taliban guerrillas in a southern province, killing at least five soldiers in a predawn “friendly fire” incident, Afghan police said today.
Afghan forces were targeting insurgents in the Andar district of Ghazni province when jets “mistakenly did an airstrike on the Afghan army” at 4 a.m. local time, General Khial Baz Sherzai, the provincial police chief, said in a telephone interview. Two other troops were wounded, he said.
NATO is “investigating the incident and we offer our condolences,” a spokesman for the military alliance said in a telephone call from Kabul, confirming deaths in the district from friendly fire. He declined to identify the nationalities of the soldiers killed and wouldn’t comment on which country’s pilots carried out the bombing.
A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, General Zahir Azimy, condemned the attack.
The incident comes three days after the new commander in the Afghan war, U.S. Army General David Petraeus, arrived in the country to pursue a joint civilian and military campaign against Taliban guerrillas in the nine-year conflict.
The U.S. and its allies are pursuing economic and social development work in Afghanistan alongside the expanded military offensive ordered by President Barack Obama in an attempt to weaken the Taliban.
Training Program
Training Afghan forces is central to the administration’s strategy. Obama says he intends to begin a troop drawdown in July 2011 and that enough Afghan soldiers by then will be capable enough to begin taking control of their nation’s security.
The U.S., which has spent $27 billion since 2002 for training Afghan forces, and 45 allies have 142,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Similar “friendly fire” assaults by U.S.-led NATO forces have killed Afghan soldiers in each year during the war, prompting protests from the Afghan government and vows by Afghan and NATO officials to improve coordination between their units.
A night-time U.S. airstrike killed four Afghan troops in Wardak province, east of Ghazni, on Jan. 30, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. German troops killed five Afghan soldiers driving in a vehicle on the evening of April 2 in the northern province of Kunduz.
--With assistance from James Rupert in New Delhi and Tony Capaccio in Washington. Editors: Mark Williams, James Hertling
To contact the reporter on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul, Afghanistan at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net
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