Afghan soldier ‘acted alone’ in killing British troops

LONDON: A man claiming to be the rogue Afghan soldier who killed three British troops has contacted the BBC and insisted he acted alone, the broadcaster said.

The man said he had carried out the attack in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province because he was angry at the conduct of British soldiers.

He said he joined the Taliban insurgency after the gun and rocket-propelled grenade attack on a base in Helmand on Tuesday.

Three members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, including the camp commander Major James Bowman and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun, from Nepal, were killed.

The BBC said Taliban militants had contacted its Kabul bureau and through an intermediary put it in touch with the alleged gunman, 21-year-old Talib Hussain from the central Ghazni province.

In a 10-minute telephone conversation, the man accused British troops of killing civilians in Helmand, including children.

When it was put to him that the civilians had also been killed in Taliban attacks, the man told the BBC that the Taliban were fighting for their own country.

It is not the first time a member of the Afghan security forces has turned on British troops: five British soldiers were killed and six injured when an Afghan policeman opened fire on them at a checkpoint in Helmand in November.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2010.