British soldiers ‘unlawfully killed’ by Afghan policeman

An inquest into the shooting of five British soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman has ruled that “all five British soldiers were unlawfully killed whilst on duty in Afghanistan”.

The soldiers were killed in Nad-e-Ali in the Helmand Province on the 3 November 2009. They were visiting the village of Shin Kalay, and had entered the seemingly secure courtyard of Checkpoint Blue 25.

They had returned from patrol, removed their body armour and were drinking tea when an Afghan policeman, known as Gulbuddin, opened fire with his AK-47 with no warning.

The five soldiers killed were Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police.

As the soldiers were relaxing, none of them were wearing their body armour or carrying side arms.

However, post mortem examinations found all five men died as a result of gunshot wounds and, with the exception of Cpl Webster-Smith, wearing body armour would not have saved them.

The coroner announced he did not think there was way that the soldiers would have known of the risk.

“I’m satisfied there’s no evidence the soldiers and authorities ought to have known there was an immediate risk from members of Afghan National Police,” he said.

Families may sue MOD

In a joint statement the families of Guardsmen Jimmy Major and Sergeant Matthew Telford expressed their sadness that this “wholly avoidable incident” had occurred, and said that had Gulbuddin’s previous criminal behaviour been dealt with properly, the deaths could have been avoided.

The family of Corporal Webster-Smith also urged the military authorities to learn lessons from the tragedy.

“As a family, we hope that lessons have been learned and that the questions raised at this inquest will be acted upon.”

Solicitor Mark Fielding represents relatives of Sergeant Matthew Telford, as well as Mr and Mrs Major

He told Channel 4 News Midlands Correspondent Darshna Soni: “They feel the mod let their boys down.”

Mr Fielding raised questions about what was known of the Afghan National Police before one of its members murdered the British soldiers.

A number of reports had warned that the ANP members were often high on drugs, corrupt and the biggest barrier to progress.

The commanding officer of the soldiers had himself warned that the ANP were “rotten to the core”.

Asked whether some of the families may now sue the MOD Mr Fielding said: “They are certainly considering it and will seek legal counsel … I expect they will.”

Although the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, military sources deny this, saying the Taliban have made similar claims over other “rogue” Afghan attacks.

The inquest has heard that the British soldiers were visiting Shin Kalay because of a reported “blood feud” between a corrupt police commander and a local Taliban chief, in which villagers were caught in the middle.

The feud had caused conflict between the local villagers and the Afghan police force, which had been accused of beatings, paedophilia and corruption.

Many of the policeman regularly took opium and cannabis and were often insubordinate and ill-disciplined, the inquest in Trowbridge, Wiltshire heard.