Manhunt launched to catch Afghan policeman who killed British soldiers

November 4, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

www.guardian.co.uk

Ministry of Defence says five soldiers died and six were injured after ‘rogue’ policeman opened fire at checkpoint in Helmand

British army responds to the killings of five soldiers in Afghanistan Link to this video

A manhunt has been launched to catch the “rogue” Afghan police man who killed five British soldiers and injured several others in a gun attack in Helmand province.

The soldiers – three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military police – were killed by gunshot wounds suffered in the attack, which happened in the Nad-e’Ali district yesterday.

British and Afghan officials said the men were killed at a police checkpoint when the policeman picked up his weapon and began firing.

The British soldiers were living and working at the checkpoint as part of a team mentoring the Afghan National Police (ANP).

The gunman apparently fired without warning, then fled the scene. Another six UK servicemen and two ANP officers were injured in the incident.

A UK military spokesman said: “It’s our understanding that one individual Afghan National Policeman, possibly in conjunction with another, went rogue.

“His motives and whereabouts are unknown at this time. Every effort is now being put into hunting down those responsible for this attack.”

Four of the soldiers were killed immediately and the fifth died of his wounds, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said.

Investigations have been launched by the Royal Military police, the local chief of the ANP, Isaf and a team from the Afghan Ministry of Interior.

The casualties were evacuated to hospital at Camp Bastion, with several flown there in Chinook helicopters and a US Black Hawk.

Two injured Afghan policemen were taken to hospital at Bost, in Lashkar Gah.

Peter Galbraith, a former deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan – who left his post over disagreements about the presidential elections – said “rushed” attempts to train extra Afghan officers for the now cancelled presidential election runoff meant such incidents could be expected.

“It is a terrible tragedy … but it is, I won’t quite say inevitable, but it is not surprising,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He said police usually received an eight-week training course, but it had been shortened to five weeks in order to have more police available for the elections, particularly in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, he added.

“The process of police training and recruiting has been very rushed,” he added. “There isn’t a lot of vetting of police before they are hired.

“It is not totally surprising that people were recruited who may have had Taliban sympathies or were infiltrated into the police by the Taliban, although I don’t know yet whether, in this particular episode, that is exactly what happened.”

Armed forces minister Bill Rammell said that recruits to the Afghan police and the army were subject to vetting and intensive training.

“Clearly as a result of this incident there is an investigation and if there are any lessons to be learned those will undoubtedly be taken on board,” he told the BBC.

“The reality is that if we want to secure Afghanistan, if we want to make ourselves safer and we don’t want our forces to be in Afghanistan forever, then that process of working alongside them, training them, building their capacity, has to be the right way forward.”

General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Isaf forces in Afghanistan, said Mohammed Haneef Atmar, the Afghan minister of interior, had given his assurance that the deaths 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.” Read more…