Taliban takes blame for five British soldiers' deaths in Afghanistan
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The Taliban claimed responsibility today for the killing of five British soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman.
The servicemen, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, died when the officer turned his gun on them at a checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province yesterday.
Another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen were wounded in the shooting, which sent shockwaves through the coalition mission in Afghanistan.
Police in Helmand said the attacker attended a police academy in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, and had been working as an officer in the Nad-e-Ali area for three years. He was on the roof of the checkpoint when he opened fire on the British soldiers. The UK military said every effort was being put into hunting down the killer.
Tribal elders in Helmand confirmed the attacker was a member of the Taliban called Gulbuddin, who had worked in two areas under different police commanders, ITV News reported. A Taliban spokesman told ITV News: "We want to sow mistrust between the Afghan National Police and foreign forces."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the House of Commons that the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killings.
Top British, US and Afghan commanders expressed deep regret for the incident, and pledged that it would be fully investigated.
Brigadier General Mirwais Noorzai, deputy regional commander of police, said Afghan officials were committed to uncovering the truth about what happened.
He told a press conference in Helmand's provincial capital, Lashkar Gah: "I have imparted our sympathy and regret to the families of the soldiers killed."
Sitting alongside him, Major General Nick Carter, the British commander of Nato troops in southern Afghanistan, stressed that it was a joint investigation between foreign forces and the Afghan authorities.
"This absolutely demonstrates the top-level commitment of the Afghan government into coming to terms and finding out what took place in this incident and learning the appropriate lessons from it," he said.
The British servicemen were living and working at the checkpoint as part of a team mentoring Afghan National Police (ANP) officers.
The Afghan policeman apparently fired without warning before anyone could respond, then fled the scene.
Sources named the attacker as a man called Gulbuddin and suggested he was connected to the Taliban, the BBC reported.
One of the soldiers who died was named as Matthew Telford, from the Grimsby area.
His uncle, William Ferrand, told the BBC: "It was his job and he loved doing it. Nobody wants their family to go out there but it's what he wanted to do."
Speaking after the press conference Major General Carter was asked how British troops will be able to trust the Afghan police in future.
He said: "The first point I would make is that we have to trust the uniform of the Afghan police.
"The second point I would make is that we will get better at this.
"We will make it perfectly possible for us absolutely to understand who we are working with because we will train them, and we will make sure that they are capable of doing the job in the way that they need to do the job."
The killings took the UK death toll in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 to 229, and made 2009 the bloodiest year for the Armed Forces since the Falklands War.
General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, said he had received assurances from Afghan interior minister Haneef Atmar that the incident would be "fully and transparently investigated".
"We will not let this event deter our resolve to building a partnership with the Afghan national security forces to provide for Afghanistan's future," he said.
"There is a deep sense of loss as I know many others feel and our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of our fellow soldiers."
Mr Brown promised to press on with the strategy of training the Afghan security forces.
He told the Commons: "It appears that they were targeted because they were engaged in what our enemies fear most - they were mentoring and strengthening Afghan forces to make Afghanistan more secure.
"While we step up and strengthen our security wherever we can, we will not stop doing what the Afghan Taliban fear most. The sacrifice of our military is great and our resolve must match it."
Tory leader David Cameron said it was a "horrific" incident which underlined the importance of "cleaning up" the Afghan police.
"Clearly the attack raises questions about the infiltration of the Afghan police by criminals, by drug dealers, by militants," he said.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth emphasised the need for Britain to show "resolve" in supporting the Afghan mission.
"I was extremely saddened to hear of the deaths of these courageous soldiers. My very deepest condolences go out to their families, friends and colleagues as they come to terms with the loss of these outstanding men," he said.
"It continues to be a difficult year in Afghanistan for our brave people who are operating within the most challenging area of the country."
Meanwhile, the Stop The War Coalition said the five soldiers were "yet more victims of an unwinnable war".
An official said: "The truth is, they are dying for no other purpose than to save the reputation of politicians like Gordon Brown, who slavishly follow the dictates of US foreign policy, even when it's obvious that the world's second poorest country is no threat whatever to British interests.
"The blood of these five soldiers is on the hands of Gordon Brown. How many more British soldiers and Afghan civilians will die before he is forced to accept the inevitable and bring all the troops home?"
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Comments
I hope you aren't serious.
In expressing regret at the loss of British lives one is not discounting the value of Afghan life.
Now it is not good for the Christian’s health to hustle
the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and
he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name
of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: “A Fool lies here who tried
to hustle the East.”
Rudyard Kipling
to torch the two towers
hosted by the Afghan
in the home of his powers
For Christians were slain
In thousands that day
And the Afghan clapped and claps to this day
OK, well that's alright, then, as long as the families have been informed. The rest of us can now get on with another day of nothing much.
Kim Howells, the former Foreign Office minister, is 100% correct. Bring our boys home. The danger to us is as much in Leeds or Luton or London as from that worthless hellhole of Helmand.
I will vote in the general election for the party that promises to be out of Afghanistan within a year.
Just pull all troops from Afghanistan, because then the killing will stop ... at least of British troops, if not Afghanis and the main invasive force of US troops ... but to hell with them if they (and Gordon Brown-nose) don't know that no one ever successfully occupied Afghanistan.
Will her name ever be read in the 'House of Commons'? Will her family receive compensation and a letter of apology? The 'power' of large states is built on the bodies of people like her, the violence will diminish when Britain stops engaging in it.
I am Irish, so we have had our own experiences with the British State and military (800 years of it and counting) but I do believe, like Michael Davitt, that we can and should all get on, the hand of friendship is there.
The thoughts, prayers and condolences from my family go to the families of all those victims of these senseless and violent conflicts.
Funny, eight years and still those flowers haven't come into bloom yet.
Must be different varieties to the ones Rummy has in his garden, I s'pose?
Hasn't it occurred to our politicians that we aren't wanted there? No matter what?
Gee even in Vietnam the VC routinely infiltrated South Vietnam forces in great numbers. Why would Afghanistan be any different?
At the highest level - one of the most respected US journalists, Phan Xuan An, for a long time in Vietnam worked originally Reuters then for Time magazine. He had wide access to all the high ranking US brass in Vietnam. He was also educated in journalism in the USA with help from the CIA sponsorship. No surprises there.
Guess what? Four star Colonel Phan Xuan An turned out to be perhaps the single most successful communist intelligence agent in South Vietnam.
SOURCE:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_
As an ex- spforces soldier (and I say this so some nerd doesn't write and what do you know) the truth lies somewhere in a dark corner where no one wants you to find it.
For example what does this mean a "rogue policeman", it means that the Afghan police have been infiltrated at all levels and so as well as fighting the enemy outside you now have to fight the enemy within. (according to whose version you believe regarding who the enemy is which is itself a point of conjecture).
Next little blinder has to be "five soldiers killed" means and many more injured who may not return to active duty and will take a heavy pay out as well.
Here is one of my favourites, a "terrible loss". Gordon Brown and the rest of his cronies will not loose one wink of sleep over those killed and maimed in this "WAR of the LOST HOPE". Gordon Brown if you took him aside and asked him name some of those who have given up their lives I doubt whether he could name more than five without being primed.
"It continues to be a difficult year in Afghanistan for our brave people who are operating within the most challenging area of the country, Means that we are stretched to the limits with little hope of winning and by brave he means rather them than me.
All in all what a complete and utter ----/--.
The UK is still playing lap dog to the US and hoping that somewhere along the line they will get a pat on the head.
The only thing that stops this from being a bloody catastrophe is the fact that the Taliban have not got a heavier weapons capability backed up by stronger anti-tank, anti air otherwise it would all be over bar the shouting.
Finally anyone who has any common knowledge and sense can see that if NATO, UK, US and Pakistan can not overcome the Taliban then it is time to rethink the exit strategy and ask ourselves how long are we going to continue listening to a bunch of duffers in white shirts and collars feeding us the same old croc of ----.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb50-o
At least this is fair journalism. BBC radio and the gutter press feel the need to add' It is thought they had links with the Taliban/ Al qua'eda/INSERT New terrorsit cell name here'.
I have to agree with catotheoldie, there is no 'terrorist line in Afghanistan, just a lot of pissed off locals with their brains and arms being fed by Extermists. As long as we are there, there will be trouble.
Lets get a bit of help from Levi Strauss and deconstruct
A local policeman kills armed invaders from a foreign land
Since his youth at the madrassah and reinforced by his family friends culture cleric and media he is taught that those who do not submit to Islam are infidels
These foreigners are stupid enough to pay train and arm him proving their worthlessness.
They are also interfering in his systematic supression of gays women and nice proftable sideline in drugs.
This deed will have popular support Karzai who couldtn find Osama with a 30 million price on his head is hardly going to find this assassin.
Mmm wonder where the term assassin came from.
To-day is a very sad day for the families and comrades of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan and my heartfelt sympathies go out to them.
The worry I have is why are we asking our young men to defend Afghanistan, a corrupt country. Brown tells us that their actions are making Britain a safer place. During WW2 the enemy did not penetrate our borders so why don't we secure our own borders and allow our troops to come home. We are asking those young men to try and defend a country which over the centuries has resisted change. Why don't our politicians see sense and bring the troops home?
Referring to those dead jerks as heroes takes the biscuit.
The sooner they are correctly identified as suckers, the better. Their uniforms should have the word loser boldly printed on both the front and back. This should make it clear, even to the very thickest of the thick, that they are duped imbeciles.
No pity should be expressed for clowns who died or lost limbs for a futile cause. Make the entry test for burger bars easier and give them a choice of employment might be the solution.
Todays exchanges included suggestions for an 'overlord' to bring together the various countries/organisations involved in the Western/Afghan coalition to assist in forming a coherent policy, this is of course a logical & one would have hoped been the case from the inception of the 'war'.
However as there has never actually been a coherent reason for the conflict it is likely any such policy will remain spinning in the same world as the reason for being there.
However those who seem to dismiss the deaths of our own in their duties as members of the UK armed forces either by equating them to those the are sent to oppose or by others who seem to enjoy criticising this particular group of UK citisens I have to say I find their view difficult to understand, perhaps their actual agenda is unrepresented in their post & a little more honesty in themeslves would help us understand their views.
latest news headlines.This turn of events may be a precursor of things to come ,will the Afghans bide their time until they are strong enough to deal a major blow to the Nato Coalition,thanks to this questionable
strategy.
Nato troops are arming and supplying militia under the control or so-called "warlords". This sort of tactic has been tried before. When the cash runs out they will turn on the hand that withdraws the cash.
The british people (not just the politicians) as a whole are to blame for this. You are a democracy, right? The fact that the electorate consistently votes for parties who are always preparing for and prepared to run off to war means that you are mostly war-mongers. The cries of anguish here are just do hypocritical.