Gordon Brown defends policy after soldier killings in Afghanistan

Published on Wednesday 4 November 2009 21:14

THE five British servicemen murdered by an Afghan police officer in Helmand province were named last night, as Gordon Brown promised to press on with the strategy of training and mentoring the country's security forces.

The Prime Minister told a sombre House of Commons that it was important to match the resolve shown by the armed forces, amid signs that political support for the Afghan campaign was fracturing.

Former foreign office minister Kim Howells, who chairs the intelligence and security committee, said the attack had struck a blow at the heart of the strategy of building up the Afghan police and army to take over responsibility for security from Nato forces.

He argued that the government would be better off using the resources it was spending on the campaign to strengthen anti-terrorism measures in the UK.

Ministers, however, insisted it was vital to deny al-Qaeda a base in Afghanistan and the mission remained essential to British national security.

The five men – three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police – had just returned from a patrol with some of the Afghan officers they were training. They had removed their body armour and were sitting drinking tea with the Afghans when they came under fire.

A rogue officer, thought to be a member of the Taleban, had got on to the roof of the checkpoint in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand, where the soldiers had been working, and let loose with a machine gun.

As well as the five fatalities, six British soldiers and two Afghan police were wounded. They were airlifted to hospital by helicopter.

The gunman, who was shot in the leg by a senior Afghan police officer, fled on a motorbike.

Mr Brown said it appeared the soldiers had been deliberately targeted by the Taleban, precisely because they feared the success of the international coalition's "Afghanisation" strategy. He told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions: "Security will be stepped up where that is necessary, but we cannot desist from the practice which is absolutely essential for the future of Afghanistan and the security of our country, and that is training and mentoring the Afghan forces."

The British soldiers had been living and working at the police checkpoint for about a fortnight, as part of a team mentoring Afghan National Police (ANP) officers. The Ministry of Defence named the five who died as Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford and Guardsman James Major, from the Grenadier Guards, and Acting Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith of the Royal Military Police.

UK troops are now thought to be involved in a hunt for the assassin. He was said by tribal elders to be a man named Gulbuddin, who had been working with the police for about two years. A UK military spokesman described the killer as a policeman who "went rogue", and said every effort was being put into hunting him down.

The men's deaths make this the bloodiest year for the armed forces since the Falklands War. A total of 92 have lost their lives so far in 2009. The death toll in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 now stands at 229.

British, United States and Afghan commanders expressed deep regret over the incident and pledged that it would be fully investigated.

General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, said he had received assurances from Afghan interior minister Haneef Atmar the shootings would be "fully and transparently investigated".

The Taleban has reportedly said it carried out the attack. A spokesman told ITV News: "We want to sow mistrust between the Afghan National Police and foreign forces."

At one point, Mr Brown said the Taleban had actually claimed responsibility for the attack, but Downing Street later sought to play down that assertion.

His spokesman said it had simply been "a general comment about what may be likely in a situation like this".

Meanwhile, a military expert warned that the latest deaths would lead to soldiers keeping their fingers "firmly on the trigger" while working alongside the security forces they are training to take over.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, predicted that Tuesday's incident would result in British soldiers losing their trust in Afghan police and military.

Col Kemp, a former member of Cobra, Britain's national crisis-management committee, said: "It will undermine trust, certainly in the short term, until we establish exactly what happened.

"And it wouldn't at all surprise me now if there aren't a lot of soldiers, British soldiers in Afghanistan, with their fingers very firmly on the trigger when they're around Afghan police and military."

Major Jim Panton, chief executive of Scottish charity Erskine and a former British Army Air Corps helicopter pilot, said: "Imagine going out on a patrol this morning, working alongside the Afghan National Army and the ANP, and thinking, 'Is one of you in disguise? Are you going to shoot me?'"

Abdul Ahad Helmandwal, head of the district council in Nad-e'Ali district, said the soldiers who died had been drinking tea with Afghan officials when the firing began from the roof of the secure compound at the police checkpoint.

A tribal elder said the policeman assassin had originally come from Musa Qala, in northern Helmand.

"He had been working for the police for two years, and he graduated from the police academy (based in Kandahar] a year ago. He was from the Alozai tribe," the elder said. Most of the police in Nad-e'Ali are Noorzai tribesmen. The elder said Gulbuddin had been working for a checkpoint commander called Issaqzai, but had abandoned his position eight days earlier following a dispute.

A spokesman for the US-led training mission said all police in the district had undergone an intensive course, known as "Focused District Development", within the last year.

But Peter Galbraith, the former top US official at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, said that the shootings were "not surprising" given that ANP training and recruiting had been "rushed" in the run-up to the presidential elections. British commanders and ministers have repeatedly spoken of the vital importance of training Afghan soldiers and police to take over security operations from coalition forces.

In a major policy speech in November, Mr Brown said: "To reach the point where international forces can return home, we must place a greater emphasis on building up the Afghan army and police."

This is not the first time ANP officers have turned against western forces.

Four weeks ago, an Afghan policeman in Wardak province killed two US soldiers on patrol before fleeing.

Last year, over a period of less than a month, Afghan police twice attacked US forces, killing two soldiers and wounding three others.

Mr Howells said the latest killings had dealt a blow to the heart of the UK's exit strategy of "Afghanisation".

The former minister said: "There are many people who have argued that there is only one way out of this for Britain and America, and that is to train up the Afghan army and police force so that they can become responsible for their own security. This is a real blow because it strikes right at the heart of that policy," he said.

Taleban infiltrating Afghan National Police 'at every level'

THE Afghan National Police (ANP) is an integral part of the US and UK exit strategy in Afghanistan, but doubts are emerging over its ability to oversee a secure civic society.

It is a force that is poorly equipped and remunerated. Corruption and irregularities in the system, however, mean many do not receive regular salaries; instead using their weapons and uniforms to extort civilians.

There are also a considerable number of drug addicts serving in the force.

Given all this, the idea of the ANP providing ordinary Afghans with a career is not a viable one. The organisation has an estimated drop-out rate of 24 per cent a year.

Yet the most destructive factor to the ANP's credibility is the Taleban enemy within.

ANP deputy chief Captain Haji Laljan has admitted that, despite the dedication of legitimate officers, some of his men defect to the Taleban, and he is powerless to stop it.

Captain Doug Beattie, who worked with the ANP during tours of Afghanistan, said local police officers were often paid off by insurgents, and he suggested that the force had been infiltrated "at every level".

He explained: "It is absolutely right to say that the Afghan police are infiltrated by the Taleban at every level, from the very lowest to the very highest.

"They're not really trained properly. They're really a militia, a tribal police whose allegiances are not necessarily to the government or even to the provincial governor.

"It is normally to their village or tribe or the area they come from."

The infiltration was also acknowledged yesterday by a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"We do know there have been examples where the Taleban have infiltrated the army and the police," the spokesman said.

In a European Commission report last month, questions were raised over the quality of those officers being recruited to the 82,000-strong force.

It found that about 15,000 policemen were hired in the run-up to the presidential elections, receiving just three weeks' training.

Worryingly, it also warned that ANP recruiting policies had become less rigorous in dangerous provinces, such as Helmand and Kandahar, thereby increasing the likelihood of insurgents.

Young father 'loved his army job'

THE father of two young sons who was killed by a rogue policeman was described today as a "wonderful lad" who died doing the job he loved.

Sergeant Matthew Telford, of the Grenadier Guards, was one of five British soldiers shot dead yesterday.

Sgt Telford's job was training Afghan forces, according to his family.

His uncle, William Ferrand, told the BBC: "It was his job and he absolutely loved it. Everybody knows what a wonderful lad he was. It has devastated all of us."

Sgt Telford, of Grimsby, joined the army at the age of 16 and had been in Afghanistan since 20 September.

Sgt Telford leaves a wife, Kerry, and two sons aged four and nine.

"His two sons are going to be devastated and will miss their father," Mr Ferrand said. "Whatever Kerry wants, we will, as a family, make sure we do as much as we can to help her.

"We're a military family, but he was the first one to join at the age of 16."

Asked about his thoughts on Sgt Telford's deployment to Afghanistan, he said: "Nobody wants their family to go out there, but it was what he wanted to do."

Grim battle to save soldiers

THE first indication of British casualties comes with the Tannoy sounding an "Op minimise" around the camp.

The announcement means no communications to the outside world.

Within 15 minutes the first helicopter touches down.

Four ambulances bring four injured men to the hospital doors, where a swarm of medics and surgeons are waiting.

The men are mostly laid out on stretchers, some showing signs of movement, others barely conscious. They are hurried inside.

"That was good, guys, nice and quick," a medic says as they wait for another round of injured men.

Another Medical Emergency Response Team arrives in a Chinook.

The ambulances set off again, driving the 300 metres from the landing pad to the Emergency Department doors.

A call goes up, "It's a right turn, this one", meaning the casualty is to be sent straight to the operating theatre.

A soldier gives CPR as the casualty is wheeled inside.

Another casualty is taken in on another stretcher.

Inside the hospital, the staff attend to the injured, every man and woman occupied, each knowing exactly what needs to be done and doing it.