Afghan officer 'killed British soldiers in row over hat'

Source: The Guardian

A rogue Afghan police officer opened fire on British soldiers, killing five and injuring six, after a row over a hat he turned up in for duty, an inquest heard.

The man, known only as Gulbuddin, shot soldiers who were mentoring Afghan police officers at a checkpoint in Helmand province. Earlier in the day he had turned up in a "brown Afghan hat" and went off "in a strop" after being told by a British soldier to wear his police issue headgear.

The inquest heard claims that Afghan police officers were open to corruption, sometimes lacked commitment and were high on drugs while on duty. In one episode outlined during the hearing an Afghan police officer gave ammunition to the Taliban in exchange for narcotics. It also emerged that the British men were posted at the checkpoint after a "blood feud" between an Afghan police officer and a local Taliban commander.

Lance Corporal Liam Culverhouse, who was shot in the eye in the attack, told the inquest at Trowbridge in Wiltshire that he was reading a magazine when the shooting began and saw a "flash of red". "I realised I'd been shot. I heard a rifle going off in automatic bursts and Gulbuddin shouting something that was like a war cry. I felt the pain and my eye was blind."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/17/afghan-officer-killed-british-soldiers

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