Hero soldier: 'I grabbed the geezer. No weapons, just my hands'

An unarmed soldier has been hailed a hero after leaping from his vehicle to tackle a suspected suicide bomber.

The man turned out to be a long-wanted insurgent, a bomb-making expert and the highest ranking Taleban fighter captured by regular British forces.

Private Lee Stephens grabbed him from the motorcycle after a chase across the desert. But after four Afghans arrived carrying an assortment of weapons, the situation developed into a Wild West-style Mexican stand-off.

Soldiers from B Company, 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment, based at Durai Junction on highway one outside Gereshk, had pushed into an insurgent hotspot two weeks ago looking to disrupt the enemy.

The soldiers realised they had had a lucky escape when the fourth man in a foot patrol spotted an improvised explosive device (IED) 30cm from his foot. They secured the area, but when a fire team moved off across the desert they saw a motorcyclist.

When the motorcyclist came within 30 metres, a barrage of insurgent gunfire opened up from behind him pinning them down, allowing the bike to speed off.

Lieutenant Martyn Fulford, 24, was commanding one of two Warrior armoured vehicles 2km away, which both set off to intercept the bike.

Lt Fulford, from Churchdown in Gloucester, said: "It tied in to our intelligence reports that there were a number of suicide bombers preparing to attack us.

"The driver put his foot down and it was a race towards Highway One. If he reached the tarmac he would have been able to outpace us and escape. We just pipped him. Pte Stephens ripped his headset off and leapt down."

Gunner Pte Stephens, 30, from Solihull, did not have time to get his weapon from the vehicle.

He said: "I jumped out off the wagon and I grabbed the geezer.

"It was mark one left, mark two right fists. That was it. No weapons, just my hands."

It was only after searching him that Pte Stephens could be sure he wasn't wearing an explosive vest. The second Warrior was commanded by Lance Corporal Jake Podmore, 22, from Stoke-on-Trent.

He said of Pte Stephens: "He was like a little hero running out."

At this point four men pulled up in two Toyota Corollas. Two were wearing Afghan police uniforms and two were in civilian clothing. The four men were refusing to show identification, being aggressive and trying to take hold of the prisoner.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Jonathan Werrett, 31, and Corporal Robert Hirst, 28, both from Walsall, and Lance Corporal Ashley Coxon, 25, and Lance Corporal Matt Ryder, 23, both from Burton-upon-Trent, were running across the desert to provide back-up.

Sgt Werrett said: "It took us about seven minutes to do 2km. It was pretty hard going, midday, 30-35 degrees, with up to 60kg each on our backs."

When they got to the scene, one of the four Afghan men was claiming the detainee had personally killed his brother. He said he would die before leaving without the prisoner.

Cpl Ryder cuffed the detainee and put him in the back of a vehicle. But the Warriors had to leave to support another team coming under fire.

Sgt Werrett, Cpl Hirst and LCpl Coxon were left facing off against the Afghans. The sergeant said: "They were moving around their vehicles. One seemed to be deciding on his weapon. We were slightly under-manned. All we needed were some tacos and we would have been in a Mexican stand-off.

"We stood there looking at each other. We had our weapons down, they had their weapons pointing at us. We just waited for the situation to calm down.

"And slowly, without saying a word, we began to move away from each other and that was it."