Renegade Afghan kills three British troops

Published on Tuesday 13 July 2010 18:28

A MANHUNT is under way in southern Afghanistan after three British troops were murdered and several others were seriously wounded when a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire in their patrol base.

• British troops have played a key role in training Afghans before handing security responsibility back to the people. It is believed the Afghan who opened fire was a Taleban infiltrator. Picture: Getty

A senior Nato official said the soldier - who fled in the chaos after his attack - fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an operations room before opening fire with a Kalashnikov assault rifle on a second location, thought to be an accommodation tent where soldiers were sleeping.

The Ministry of Defence said the soldiers from the 1st Battalion, the Royal Ghurka Rifles, were victims of what appeared to be "premeditated attack" involving a "combination of weapons".

"We believe these were the actions of a lone individual who has betrayed his (international] and Afghan comrades," said Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith, the spokesman for Task Force Helmand.

"His whereabouts are currently unknown but we are making strenuous efforts to find him. He should know that his actions will not deter us from our task and we will continue to work closely with our Afghan friends to bring security to Helmand."

It is the second time in less than a year that British troops in Afghanistan have been slain by the Afghan security personnel whom they are risking their lives to train.

British officials stressed it was the work of a lone renegade but the Afghan army corps commander in Helmand told The Scotsman he thought the gunman was a Taleban plant.

"I think he was appointed by Taleban and he came to ANA with a different name. We have started investigation," said General Sayed Molok Paktiawal.

The operations room is manned 24 hours a day. Depending on the size of the base it is where soldiers monitor radios, watch surveillance feeds on computer screens and plot patrols and record battles on large, classified military maps.

An Afghan army spokesman said the soldier used a rocket-propelled grenade and an assault rifle before fleeing the camp.

President Karzai immediately expressed his condolences and apologised to Nato and Britain for the soldier's actions.

A policeman who attacked British soldiers in Nad-e Ali last November, killing five and injuring eight, escaped in the aftermath and has never been caught.

Taleban spokesmen were unreachable for comment, but in the past the insurgents have claimed to have infiltrated the Afghan security forces.

"It's obvious that the Taleban have already infiltrated deep inside the system," said Haroun Mir, the director of Afghanistan's centre for research and policy studies in Kabul.

Building up the Afghan forces to a point where they are large enough and competent enough to take over is a central pillar of Nato's exit strategy.

"The biggest challenge for Nato is to speed up the recruitment of Afghan security personnel," Mr Mir added. "They have to recruit thousands of people every month, but they don't have any mechanism or processes to do any background checks or psychological testing."

General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said: "I echo the condolences and sentiments offered by President Karzai and the other Afghan officials. This is a combined, joint mission, Afghan and Alliance troopers fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the Taleban and other extremists.

"We have sacrificed greatly together and we must ensure that the trust between our forces remains solid in order to defeat our common enemies."

His deputy Lieutenant General Nick Parker, who is the most senior British soldier in Afghanistan, urged the survivors not to let this attack deter them from the mission.

"In that patrol base, this will be traumatic event, what I say to them is, keep on working, you're doing a fantastic job and you must continue to do it and the vast majority of your Afghan partners are real genuine partners and you'll know that because you work together everyday," he said. "I think everybody knows, partnering is the key to our future, we have got to transfer security responsibility to the people whose country this is and if we don't do that, we're not going to succeed in our mission."

The attack in Nahr-e Saraj, in central Helmand, happened in the early hours of yesterday morning, officials said.

Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox vowed to "do everything we can to bring the individual responsible to justice."

General Sher Mohammad Karimi, the Afghan Army Chief of Staff, said: "The loss of any of our coalition partners affects us deeply. We extend our thoughts and prayers to the friends and families of our fellow soldiers."

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