Soldiers injured in Afghanistan attack in Birmingham for treatment
“I just don’t see what the alternative is. We could as an alliance down tools, but that would made a complete mockery of the strategy in Afghanistan. We have to train up forces and police to take the place of the Western forces that are there now. It’s the only game in town. This is a tragedy but it is isolated.”
Former commander of the Royal Marines Major General Julian Thompson said that it was “very worrying” that the murders were carried out by an Afghan policeman.
But he said: “What happened in Nad-e’Ali must seem like a terrible betrayal. However, difficult as it is, they have to carry on. We do not have an indefinite timeframe in Afghanistan and patience will wear thin unless tangible progress is made.”
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.
Training is being given to the army and police there to build up security so that international forces can eventually withdraw.
British troops are thought to be involved in a manhunt for the assassin named by tribal elders as Taliban member Gulbuddin.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the soldiers describing their deaths as a “terrible loss”.
He promised to press on with the strategy of training Afghan soldiers and police.
Mr Brown told the House of Commons: “It appears that they were targeted because they were engaged in what our enemies fear most - they were mentoring and strengthening Afghan forces to make Afghanistan more secure.”
The men’s deaths make this the bloodiest year for the Armed Forces since the Falklands War.
The death toll in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 now stands at 229.
•The funeral of a British soldier who died at Selly Oak Hospital weeks after being wounded in Afghanistan will take place today.
Corporal Thomas Mason, known as Tam, 27, from Fife, Scotland, was caught by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar Province on September 15.
The funeral service will take place today at Trinity Parish Church in Cowdenbeath, Fife, followed by a burial at Douglas Bank Cemetery where there will be a firing party.
•The United Nations said today that it is temporarily relocating more than half its staff in Afghanistan following last week’s deadly Taliban attack.
The UN mission is still reeling from a pre-dawn assault on a guesthouse in the capital last week that left five UN staff dead.
Some 600 non-essential staff will be moved for four to five weeks to more secure locations in and outside Afghanistan while the body works to find safer permanent housing, spokesman Aleem Siddique said.
