British soldier recalls fatal friendly fire attack

A SOLDIER injured when a US Apache helicopter strafed a British Army base in Afghanistan told an inquest yesterday that he thought he was going to die in the “friendly fire” incident.

Lance Corporal Christopher Roney, of 3rd Battalion, The
Rifles, died from head injuries he suffered while serving at Patrol Base Almas, in Sangin, Helmand, in December 2009.

At nightfall, the base was rocked by a Taleban bomb and the platoon there was fighting off an attack when two US gunships were called in to help. However, they fired on the base thinking it was an enemy position.

Rifleman Denver Fedee told the inquest in Sunderland Civic Centre in Tyne & Wear: “I saw red splashes of explosion. I had never seen it before and I was wondering what was happening. When it started a second time, you could feel the sandbags bursting.”

The sniper was hit in the arm and hand by shrapnel.

A comrade joined him, and Rifleman Fedee told the hearing: “By that time we were scared. [I thought] ‘That’s when you are going to die’.”

Despite the onslaught from above, Rifleman Fedee and others continued to fire on the enemy positions.