Soldiers injured in Afghanistan attack in Birmingham for treatment
SOLDIERS critically injured in a devastating attack which left five of their comrades dead were today receiving treatment at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.
A military jet flew into Birmingham International Airport last night, to be greeted by a fleet of ambulances. It is understood that four critically injured and ‘walking wounded’ were then transferred to hospital.
The five men died in the Nad-e’Ali district of Helmand on Tuesday, in an attack which injured another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen.
They were killed by what is believed to be a British-trained Afghan policeman who “went rogue”.
A massive manhunt was today underway to try and trace the killer, who is still on the run.
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.
Sgt Telford’s 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.”
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.”
Former soldier and Chairman of the Commons Sub-Committee on Counter-Terrorism Patrick Mercer said the training programme 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. It’s relatively unusual but this particular strike by the enemy has been particularly bloody.
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