Troops killed by 'rogue' policeman

Reported by teletext on Wednesday, 4 November 2009 (on November 4, 2009)

Five soldiers have been shot dead by a British-trained Afghan policeman who "went rogue".British troops are thought to be involved in a manhunt for the assassin named by tribal elders as Taliban member Gulbuddin.The servicemen, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, died when the officer sprayed bullets from the roof of the secure checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province.Another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen were wounded in the shooting - claimed by the Taliban - which has rocked the coalition mission in Afghanistan. One of the Grenadier Guards who died was named as Sergeant Matthew Telford, from Grimsby. His uncle, William Ferrand, said: "It was his job and he absolutely loved it. Everybody knows what a wonderful lad he was. It has devastated all of us."Top UK, US and Afghan commanders expressed deep regret for the incident and pledged it would be fully investigated. The British soldiers had been living and working at the police checkpoint for about a fortnight as part of a team mentoring Afghan National Police officers. They had just returned from a patrol. Some reports suggested they had taken off their body armour and were drinking tea with their Afghan colleagues. Without warning the policeman opened fire from the roof of the checkpoint before anyone could respond.Tribal elders named the attacker as a member of the Taliban called Gulbuddin, it was reported. Authorities in Helmand said he attended a police academy in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, and had been working as an officer in the Nad-e-Ali area for three years. A UK military spokesman described the killer as a policeman who "went rogue" and said every effort was being put into hunting him down.Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the House of Commons that the Taliban had said it was behind the shootings. "While we are assembling evidence, the Taliban have claimed responsibility for this incident," he said at Prime Minister's Questions. But Downing Street later appeared to back away from the assertion, citing media reports of possible insurgent involvement.Mr Brown's spokesman told a regular daily press briefing in Westminster: "It was a general comment about what may be likely in a situation like this.We have already seen in other incidents that the Taliban have been involved. It is not therefore an illogical step that there may well be Taliban involvement in this."The killings took the UK death toll in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 to 229, and made 2009 the bloodiest year for the Armed Forces since the Falklands War. They also threatened to set back progress towards the final withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

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