Kabul, November 05: The killings were sudden and savage. There was no escape from the raking bursts of machine-gun fire for the soldiers hemmed in by the walls of the police checkpoint.
The British troops at Blue 25 had no chance to defend themselves, and a terrible price was paid. Four men lay dead, and seven others were injured, one of them to die later. Their attacker, an Afghan policeman, was also wounded, but managed to escape on a motorcycle under covering fire from his accomplices.
One of the men who died was yesterday named by his family as Sergeant Matthew Telford, of the Grenadier Guards, who was the father of two sons, aged four and nine. He had been in Afghanistan two weeks. Another was named as 18-year-old Guardsman James Major. The others who fell were Warrant Officer Darren Chant, also of the Grenadier Guards, and Acting Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, both of the Royal Military Police.
–Agencies