Shock and surprise at base killings

THE deaths of three UK troops at the hands of a rogue Afghan soldier were "shocking and surprising", their commanding officer told an inquest.

Major James Joshua Bowman, Lieutenant Neal Turkington, and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun, all of 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles, were killed in the attack on their base in Helmand Province on 13 July last year.

The inquest heard that Sgt Talib Hussein, 23, shot Maj Bowman, 34, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, dead in his sleeping quarters in Patrol Base 3 in Nahr-e Saraj district, near Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah.

He then fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the base's command centre, killing Lt Turkington, 26, from Craigavon, Northern Ireland, and Cpl Pun, 33, from Nepal, and wounding four other UK soldiers.

Lt Col Gerald Strickland, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles, told the hearing in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, yesterday of the Afghan National Army's reaction to the killings.

"They were horrified. They were shocked," the officer said.

"The stand-in Afghan commander wanted to take 20 men and go after Talib Hussein, but I didn't want to do that."

Col Strickland said no motive had been established for the attack and said the only report he had seen was on the BBC after the killings, when a man called Hussein contacted the corporation's bureau in Kabul to claim responsibility saying he had been angered by British conduct.

"What I saw was on the BBC from an extract of his telephone conversation and it was reported he was incensed because he had witnessed ISAF (International Security Assistance Force] shooting a civilian, which I can categorically say hadn't happened," Col Strickland added.

The inquest continues.