Soldier Dies As Five Victims Mourned

As news emerged that a British soldier from 3rd Battalion The Rifles had been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan today, a possible Taliban link to the death of five soldiers shot dead by an Afghan police officer last Tuesday has yet to be confirmed.

Earlier today, the UK has been paying tribute to the five servicemen who died in the previous ambush.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the killed soldiers had been "men of courage" whose memories will live on.

They were Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Sgt Matthew Telford, Guardsman James Major (from the Grenadier Guards) and Acting Cpl Steven Boote and Cpl Nicholas Webster-Smith (from the Royal Military Police).

During the shooting, six British servicemen and two Afghan National Police (ANP) were also injured.

Using Chinook and US Black Hawk helicopters, medical emergency response teams transferred the British casualties to the field hospital at Camp Bastion, in Helmand.

The dead soldiers, who had been mentoring Afghan police in Helmand province, had been living in a compound at a national police checkpoint in the Nad Ali district for the last two weeks.

Although it has not been proved yet, PM Gordon Brown stated yesterday that the Taliban could have infiltrated the police to commit the crime.

Mr Brown said training Afghan police is essential to Afghanistan’s strategy so they would not stop because it is "what the Taliban fears most".

He also said that he didn't want to draw conclusions about all the Afghan police from one single incident, and stated: "We will have to increase the number of police but it's clear we will have to increase the quality of police as well".

The Afghan Minister of Interior, Hanif Atmar, expressed his regret for the incident and assured it will be fully and transparently investigated.

General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force, stated this event would not deter their resolve to build a partnership with the Afghan National Security Forces to provide Afghanistan's future.

However, there are real fears among troops on the ground. A former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, said: "It wouldn't at all surprise me now if there aren't a lot of soldiers, British soldiers in Afghanistan, with their fingers very firmly on the trigger when they're around Afghan police and military."

The British Military Police have launched an investigation as well as the local ANP chief and the Afghan National Director of Security.

The soldiers' relatives and friends also told the media about their courage and value characters, after hearing the tragic news.

See: Killer Afghan Policeman 'Taliban', Says PM

(CL/BMcC)