Policeman who killed British troops 'is back with Taliban'

Source: The Guardian

The gunman who killed five British soldiers in an attack in Afghanistan's Helmand province was today back with Taliban fighters who greeted him with flowers, sources close to the Afghan security forces said.

The killer – identified only as a policeman called Gulbadin – was back under Taliban protection, the source said.

British and Afghan commanders were undertaking an urgent investigation into the circumstances of the attack.

The Ministry of Defence named the five soldiers who died in the attack as Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford, Guardsman James Major, Acting Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith.

Military officials said the men were shot as they drank tea at a military compound in the village of Shin Kalay.

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Speaking after the killings, tribal elders said they were aware Gulbadin had Taliban links.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/05/afghanistan-gunman-uk-soldiers-taliban

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Clockwise from top left: Sergeant Matthew Telford, Corporal Nicholas
Webster-Smith, Warrant Office Darren Chant and Guardsman James Major,
killed in a Helmand province gun attack. Photograph: BBC

Taliban Has Infiltrated Afghan Police, Ex-U.K. Soldier Says

By Kitty Donaldson and Caroline Alexander

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Afghan police force has been infiltrated “at every level” by the Taliban, a retired British soldier who mentored police in Afghanistan said.

“The policemen are influenced either ideologically or financially,” former Captain Doug Beattie said in a telephone interview today. “They are not Taliban sleeper cells. They are radicalized once they are in the job.”

While Afghanistan’s Army works well, its police organization “is not a credible force,” said Beattie, who was in Helmand province in 2006 to 2008 and is author of “Task Force Helmand: A Soldier’s Story of Life, Death and Combat” (Simon & Schuster UK, 368 pages, 17.99 pounds ($29.84)). Police recruits are neither vetted nor paid enough, and have a miserable life, he said.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence released today the identities of five soldiers killed at an Afghan police base on Nov. 3 by a Taliban gunman who had infiltrated the force. Six other soldiers were seriously wounded in the shooting in the Nad-e’Ali district of Helmand province.

The soldiers were living and working in the compound as part of a strategy to train and mentor Afghan national police and army officers so that they can function on their own and U.K. forces can return home.

The incident has brought Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s strategy of “Afghanization” into public focus and reignited a debate about whether the 9,000-strong British force should stay in the country. Another stated aim is to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a training ground for terrorists who aim to take lives in the West.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=alxTSUyZU0yM

We use drones for assassination, they use guys, who's the bad guys?

He probably thinks the British are just any other local force where he can kill them and go home and be treated as a hero. In a few days he's probably going to hear the faint sound of a helicopter or jet then a very brief pop followed by blackness (if his brain is still intact).

And so on.

That probably means the SAS are on it and will try and bring him in to face trial, if they can. And in reply to the other posters who replied to you, the Brits don't just go around recklessly bombing civilians in Afghanistan.

What trials should the foreign occupyers stand before--mere loitering?

Even though Taliban apologists would like everyone to think otherwise.

And yes, it was murder.

Call it whatever you like. Those Brits are dead because they went to make war in Afghanistan.

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he does not see and his life will end when a 338Lap round splits his head. He should shoot himself now and save someone the trouble.

of every British, Canadian, or US soldier enjoy daily masturbation. You are just upset that someone might kill this bastard.

There is nothing unreasonable in pointing out the fact, that when you invade and occupy another country, at least some of the rightful inhabitants will try to kill you, and sometimes they will succeed. Nothing about the historical record indicates that maintaining empire will be easy.

And the British troops as well. And always will.

I could care less if someone shoots "this bastard." I don't even know who he is.

I just don't get off on big gun graphics and macho bluster.