In yet another incident highlighting the sympathetic behavior of the Afghanistan security forces towards Taliban, a rouge Afghan police officer shot and killed five soldiers of the British contingent of the coalition forces currently stationed in Afghanistan. Today’s incident has cast serious doubts over the allegiance of Afghan forces towards the betterment of their country and has raised serious security concerns for the coalition forces working closely with these security forces.

In a statement, British army spokesperson, Lt. Col. David Wakefield has stated that, the lone Afghan officer was an individual rouge officer, who took the opportunity at hand and killed the five British soldiers. The policeman was part of a security detachment, that was tasked with providing security to a clinic in the Helmand province. As the estimated threat level was down, the British soldiers were in a more relaxed state and many of them, had taken off their body armors.

The unprovoked attack on the coalition troops was answered with retaliatory fire from the remaining British troops and was immediately followed by an insurgent attack on the clinic, that was later suppressed with the help of close air support. This loss of life for the British military is the highest in a day, since its deployment in the year 2003 to the theater.

In a statement, British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown said,

“The death of five brave soldiers in a single incident is a terrible loss. They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Via New York Times.

Note: The previous statement made by Lt. Col. David Wakefield and written in the words of authors was regrettably an author error and has been duly corrected. Furthermore, the additional text attached in post has also been dutifully removed.