British soldier hits out after five killed in Afghanistan
Claims of corruption and drug taking
Published:
A BRITISH soldier today said he was “not surprised” by the rogue recruit attack that claimed five lives in Afghanistan.
And other military figures said security problems were rife in the Afghan police.
Warrant Officer First Class Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford and Guardsman James Major from the Grenadier Guards died alongside Acting Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith from the Royal Military Police.
Captain Doug Beattie, who mentored Afghan soldiers and police officers in Helmand in 2006/7, said: “Whether people will admit this openly or not, it is a fact that the Afghan police have been infiltrated at every level by the insurgency.”
An unnamed soldier added he was “not surprised” by the attack.
He said of the police recruits: “Most of them were corrupt and took drugs, particularly opium.
“There were no security checks – they were literally allowed to come into the compound and we had to rely on the local chief of police, who recruited them.”
But former soldier and Chairman of the Commons Sub-Committee on Counter-Terrorism Patrick Mercer said training must continue.
He said: “If you risk using indigenous forces and you risk sending small numbers of troops to isolated areas to work with them, these sorts of things are going to happen
“I just don’t see what the alternative is.”
The five men died in the Nad-e’Ali district of Helmand, in an attack which injured another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen.
British troops are thought to be involved in a manhunt for the assassin named by tribal elders as Taliban member Gulbuddin.
