The murder of three soldiers by a renegade Afghan casts a shadow over the UK’s plans to train the local army before withdrawing its own troops
The British government’s Afghanistan exit strategy
suffered a severe setback on Tuesday after three
British troops were murdered by an Afghan colleague inside a patrol base in Helmand province.
The soldiers, from the Gurkha Rifles, were killed by a rogue member of the Afghan national army in a “suspected premeditated attack”, the ministry of defence said.
The Afghan, who fled the scene, is understood to have shot one man in his bed and killed the other two by firing a rocket-propelled grenade into a
control room.
The killings are the latest blow to the UK’s effort to train the Afghan security forces, which is key to government plans to withdraw UK troops by 2015 and raises questions about the extent of the Taliban’s infiltration of the Afghan army.
After the attack the Taliban claimed the Afghan soldier had joined its insurgency. In a message
on its website, Afghan Taliban spokesperson Qari Yousef Ahmadi said that after opening fire on the servicemen the rogue soldier had fled to a safe place protected by the Taliban.
British Prime Minister David Cameron described the attack as “appalling” but insisted that Britain would not be diverted from the “absolutely
essential” task of training an effective Afghan army.
He said: “We must not let this change our strategy of building up the army, building up the government of Afghanistan.”
Liam Fox, the UK defence secretary, said the attack would not affect the government’s “resolve to see our mission through and train Afghan security forces so they can look after their own security and our forces one day can come home”.
In a speech to the Chatham House international affairs think-tank he said: “We all know there is no such thing as a risk-free war, a casualty free
war or a fatality-free war.”
Five thousand British troops are partnering members of the Afghan army on operations. They are engaged in an ambitious project, now under renewed scrutiny, to help train Afghan army recruits whose numbers are due to be increased from about 100nbsp&000 to 134nbsp&000 by the start of next year.
They are also engaged in helping to train the Afghan police force, described recently by one
senior British defence official as a “disaster”.
The soldiers, from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, died after being targeted at a joint patrol base in the Nahr-e Saraj, north of Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital.
One soldier is believed to have been a Nepalese national and the other two are thought to be from the UK.
Four other troops were injured in the attack.
The attack took place around 2:45am. The soldier responsible fled the base, sparking a major manhunt by British and Afghan troops.
It is the third time a member of the Afghan security forces has opened fire on British troops. In 2008 two British soldiers were shot in the leg and last November five British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman who has never been caught.
The government has made it clear that training the Afghan army is central to British plans in Afghanistan.
Earlier this year a British infantry commander, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Ilic, said: “It is absolutely fundamental we get this right. This is our exit strategy — for us to train the Afghan national army to the right standard and quality so they can take
on the fight when they’re ready.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai apologised to the UK after the killings.
US and Nato commander General David Petraeus said: “I echo the condolences and sentiments offered by President Karzai and the other
Afghan officials.
“This is a combined, joint mission — Afghan and alliance troopers fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the Taliban and other extremists.”
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