Afghan 'policeman' shoots dead five British soldiers

Kabul/London, Nov 4 : Five British soldiers have been killed in a single incident in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, after an Afghan policeman they were training opened fire on the forces, the Ministry of Defence in London said Wednesday.

Reports said six British soldiers were also injured in the incident.

"Five British soldiers were killed in Shina Klay area of Nad Ali district," Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand told DPA.

Daoud could not provide more details, but a senior police official in the province said that a man in police uniform shot the soldiers and then escaped from the area.

"We don't know if the attacker was a member of Taliban group, or there was some kind of personal motivation behind his act," the police official said, but declined to be named.

He said an Afghan police commander for the Gulbuddin checkpoint, where the incident took place, and another policeman were wounded in the firing.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the soldiers, describing their deaths as a "terrible loss".

The soldiers, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, were all killed as a result of gunshot wounds sustained in an attack in the Nad-e'Ali district Tuesday afternoon.

Reports quoted a spokesman from Task Force Helmand as saying that the soldiers were at a checkpoint at the time of the incident and were fired upon by an Afghan policeman.

The Britons had trained Afghan police in what was described as a "secure compound" when the incident took place.

The incident is being investigated, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand said. The suspicion was that the gunman could have been a supporter of the Taliban or that he had a "personal grievance".

The deaths bring to 229 the total number of British troops killed in Helmand province since 2001.

--IANS