The men, from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, were on duty on Tuesday morning in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand province, when the Afghan opened fire.

One of the dead is believed to be a Nepalese Gurkha and the other two were described as UK nationals.

An investigation is under way and next of kin are being informed.

The number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 stands at 317.

Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the killings as “appalling” but insisted that the attack should not change the strategy of working alongside the Afghan army.

“It is absolutely essential that we don’t let this terrible incident change our strategy. It is the right thing to do to build up the Afghan national army.

“We need to make sure that we build up that army because that, in the end, is the way that we are going to be able to bring our troops back home.”

Similarly, Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: “Training and developing the Afghan National Security Forces is vital to the international mission in Afghanistan and today’s events will not undermine the real progress we continue to make. British and Isaf forces are working shoulder to shoulder with Afghans and will continue to do so undeterred.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has apologised to the UK after the incident and a defence ministry spokesman said a soldier from the Afghan National Army (ANA) was being sought.

Mr Cameron said he spoke to President Karzai on Tuesday morning and both men agreed that an urgent investigation was required.

President Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the Afghanistan government was also investigating the killings.

If the incident is confirmed, he said, the government will “do everything to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice”.

The BBC understands that one of the soldiers killed was shot. It is understood that other two were killed by a rocket propelled grenade.

There is a helpline number in the UK for concerned relatives – 08457 800900.

The spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lt Col James Carr-Smith, said: “We believe these were the actions of a lone individual who has betrayed his Isaf and Afghan comrades.

“His whereabouts are currently unknown but we are making strenuous efforts to find him. He should know that his actions will not deter us from our task and we will continue to work closely with our Afghan friends to bring security to Helmand.

“Three courageous and dedicated soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice. They will be greatly missed and their actions will not be forgotten. We will remember them.”

British soldiers in Afghanistan have trained 130,000 Afghan troops since 2006, and 5,000 British troops are currently partnering members of the ANA. It appears to be the third incident in which a member of the Afghan security forces has opened fire on British troops.

There was one incident in 2008 when two British soldiers were shot in the leg, and another in November 2009 when five British soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan policeman.

Security correspondent Frank Gardner said he was not surprised that the attack had happened because the vetting process to join the Afghan military is poor. It is not a popular career move, he said, because it is poorly paid and dangerous.

“It is important to keep an open mind about what has motivated this person,” said our correspondent.

“This kind of thing often has rather more below the surface. There are often tribal feuds, there are family feuds; there are personal reasons. So it isn’t always down to the insurgency.”

Our correspondent added that the tragedy was likely to intensify debate over the human costs of the mission in Afghanistan, but he said the West’s exit strategy relies on training the Afghan security forces.

The Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, said: “This is a combined joint mission – Afghan and Alliance troopers fighting shoulder to shoulder against the Taliban and other extremists.

“We have sacrificed greatly together and we must ensure the trust between our forces remains solid in order to defeat our common enemies.”

And Col Richard Kemp, a former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, told the BBC it was important to remember that this was an isolated incident and “not a pattern of events”.

They also say that an unspecified number of people have been arrested.

At least 74 people were killed in the twin explosions at a rugby club and a restaurant.

The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has said it was behind the attack because Uganda is supporting Somalia’s government in Mogadishu.

Government spokesman Fred Opolot said the arrests were made after the vest was found in the Makindye area south-east of Kampala.

The vest was found in a black bag similar to those used for carrying lap-tops in a nightclub on Monday afternoon, police say.

t apparently contained ball-bearings, explosives and a detonator.

The nationalities of those arrested has not been released but officials have said a head found near the site of one of the blasts appeared to belong to a Somali national, who may have been a suicide bomber.

The Ugandan police are being helped by American investigators as they try to work out exactly how the explosions were planned and detonated.

BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the Ugandan authorities are under great pressure to show that they can prevent any repeat of Sunday’s devastating blasts.

The African Union, which has sent peacekeepers to Somalia, is holding a summit in Kampala later this month and officials say it will go ahead as planned.

In other developments:

• Uganda has started seven days of national mourning, with flags flying at half-mast across the country
• Kenya, which is training Somali government forces, has stepped up security measures along its border with Somalia
• The authorities in Burundi, the other country sending troops to the AU mission in Somalia, are on alert after al-Shabab repeated threats to attack it.

Foreigners killed

In a statement in Mogadishu on Monday, a spokesman for the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, threatened more attacks in the region.

“Al-Shabab was behind the two bomb blasts in Uganda,” Mr Rage said.

Mr Opolot said on Monday that most of those killed – at least 60 people – were Ugandan nationals.

He added that an Irish woman was among those who died at the restaurant, the Reuters news agency reports.

California-based aid group Invisible Children, which helps child soldiers, said one of its workers, Nate Henn, 25, a US national, was among those killed at the rugby club.

Officials said the dead and wounded also included Ethiopian, Eritrean, Indian and Congolese nationals.

Mr Opolot added that the other victims had not yet been identified.

Summit to go ahead

Ugandan Internal Affairs Minister Matia Kasaija told the BBC World Today programme that the severed head of a person from Somalia had been identified at the scene of one blast.

He said Uganda had been aware of the threat, but had been caught off-guard.

About 5,000 African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi are based in Mogadishu, propping up the fragile interim government.

The Amisom force is engaged in frequent firefights with the Islamist insurgents who control much of southern and central Somalia.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni condemned the attackers and said his country would not “run away” from its commitments in Mogadishu.

“People who are watching football are not people who should be targeted. If they [attackers] want a fight, they should go and look for soldiers.”

But opposition MPs have called for Uganda to reconsider its deployment in Somalia after the blasts.

At least 300 people were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of crimes including murder, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organisation.

The Calabrian mafia, known as ‘Ndrangheta, is one of Italy’s major criminal organisations.

Domenico Oppedisano, 80, said by police to be the family head, was arrested a small coastal town in Calabria.

Police also arrested the organisation’s manager in Milan, northern Italy, among 160 others in the Lombardy region.

Those held include businessmen and a public health official.

Mafia war

The operation also involved arrests in the US, according to reports.

The sweep comes after the northern branch of the family tried and failed to secede from the southern part of the operation, sparking a mafia war, the news agency Agence France Presse reported.

Analysts say the group had expanded out of its Calabrian heartland to play a major role in organised crime throughout Europe, and in the international drugs trade from South America.

The police have also seized assets worth millions of euros.

The police operation involved 3,000 officers and is the largest carried out by police in recent years, local media said.

Anti-mafia prosecutors say that the operation exposed crucial information about how the family operates, and made extensive use of wiretaps.

“Two al-Qaeda elements were arrested during a raid on a house where cell members were hiding, and eight others were caught in the following days,” the ministry said on its website.

A security official said the group arrested in Hadramout, east of the capital Sanaa, was accused of plotting attacks on security and other vital installations in the eastern province, but did not identify specific targets.

The defence ministry identified the Saudi who was arrested as Abdullah Faraj Mohamed Mahmoud al-Jawbar, who is on a list of 85 Saudis wanted by Riyadh.

The ministry said that authorities had found a suicide bomb belt in the house a week ago.

Death sentences upheld

Meanwhile, also on Sunday, a Yemeni appeals court upheld death sentences against four al-Qaeda fighters accused of carrying out attacks that included a deadly assault on the US embassy in March 2008 and the killing of two Belgian tourists in the same year.

A court official said the appeals court overturned the death sentences of two other alleged members of the same cell who were convicted of attacks on police in southern Hadramout province, and sentenced them to 12 years each instead.

The court in Sanaa on Sunday also upheld sentences of up to 15 years imprisonment against 10 other al-Qaeda suspects, including four Syrians and a Saudi man, for masterminding the attacks.

The cell was also accused of waging successive attacks on police and oil installations.

Most of the 16 fighters were arrested in August 2008 following a fierce gunbattle between al-Qaeda and Yemeni security forces in Hadramout.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and its government is already struggling to contain an uprising in the north, unrest in the south and the re-emergence of al-Qaeda in the region.

Two bombers struck seconds apart in Yakaghund village in the Mohmand tribal region, devastating government buildings, shops and houses.

Mohmand is part of Pakistan’s tribal regions where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have a strong presence.

A Taliban spokesman said they claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ikramullah Mohmand said their target was a meeting of local officials and anti-Taliban elders from the Anbar Utmankhel tribe.

Initial reports put the death toll at about 50 and said one bomber was responsible.

However, officials later said that at least 102 had died and more than 115 were wounded. More bodies were recovered from wrecked buildings and others had died from their injuries in hospital.

One of the bombers was on a motorcycle and it is believed the other was driving a vehicle laden with explosives.

The blasts happened near the office of local administrator Rasool Khan, who escaped unharmed.

Tribal elders were in the building but were unhurt, according to Mohmand chief administrator Amjad Ali Khan.

He said the attack signified “increasing desperation” on the part of the Taliban, whose “space is being restricted by security forces”.

One of the explosions also damaged the wall of a prison allowing some inmates to escape, although none of them were militants, said Rasool Khan.

Witnesses said the dead and injured included women and children.

Abdul Wadood, 19, had been sitting in a vehicle when the bombs exploded and suffered head and arm injuries.

“I only heard the deafening blast and lost consciousness,” he said.

“I found myself on a hospital bed after opening my eyes. I think those who planned or carried out this attack are not humans.”

Those seriously injured in the blasts were taken to hospital in Peshawar, about 15 miles (25km) away.

Mohmand has been the scene of heavy fighting between Pakistani security forces and the Taliban.

The region borders Afghanistan’s Kunar province and the Bajaur tribal region of Pakistan, both of which are staging grounds for the Taliban.

However, the bombings in Yakaghund are the first major attack against a civilian target in Mohmand region, and only the second in which a suicide bomber has been involved, says the BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad.

In early 2009, a suspected suicide bomber targeted a military check-point in the Nahaqai area of Mohmand, but he was the only casualty.

Operations by the military over the past two years have confined the militants to areas close to the Afghan border, our correspondent says.

]]> http://alphacombatgroup.com/?feed=rss2&p=3795 0 http://alphacombatgroup.com/?p=3790 http://alphacombatgroup.com/?p=3790#comments Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:16:56 +0000 predrag http://alphacombatgroup.com/?p=3790 Police in the Bahamas say they have captured a fugitive US teenager known as the Barefoot Bandit.

Colton Harris-Moore was caught early on Sunday on the island of Eleuthera, a spokeswoman for the Royal Bahamas Police Force said.

The hunt turned to the Bahamas when Harris-Moore flew an allegedly stolen plane in from the US and crash-landed.

It was the latest in a series of suspected thefts of aircraft, boats and cars by Harris-Moore.

He has been dubbed the Barefoot Bandit as he is thought to have carried out many of his alleged offences with no shoes on.

“Without any incident, Colton Harris[-Moore] was taken into custody this morning,” Sgt Chrislyn Skippings of Bahamas police told US-based Fox television.

“People were amazed that this teenager was able to make his way down here,” she said.

Harris-Moore has been taken to the capital Nassau where he faces possible extradition to the US, she added.

The Cessna 400 light aircraft allegedly stolen from an airport in Bloomington, Indiana, came down off Abaco Island in the Bahamas.

Police picked up his trail on Eleuthera after recovering a power boat allegedly stolen from a marina on Abaco, some 40 miles (65 km away), AP news agency reported.

The teenager has been on the run from US police since 2008 and is accused of at least three journeys in stolen planes despite never having had flying lessons.

Just days ago, the FBI announced a $10,000 reward for Harris-Moore’s capture.

Frequent run-ins with the law culminated in a three-year sentence of detention, but after early release he absconded from a halfway house in April 2008, and allegedly began a spree of burglaries.

He is accused of repeatedly breaking into empty holiday homes, taking food, stealing electronic items and even using stolen credit cards to get deliveries of items essential for surviving in the woods.

Three died in east Afghanistan and two were killed in separate roadside bombings in the south. A sixth American died in an accidental explosion.

More than 350 Nato soldiers have been killed this year.

In other violence, gunmen killed 11 Pakistani Shia tribesmen in the east and one person was killed by a motorbike bomb in Kandahar.

Also on Saturday, hundreds of Afghans took to the streets of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in protest at increasing civilian deaths.

Rising trend

NATO said the three separate incidents in the east were small-arms fire, a home-made bomb attack and an “insurgent attack” that was not specified.

The two separate attacks in the south were with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

The accidental explosion took place in the east.

The deaths add to the rising trend of casualties for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force. June was the worst month for foreign troop deaths since the US-led invasion in late 2001.

In the east of the country, 11 Pakistani Shia tribesmen were killed when gunmen opened fire on their bus, which had taken a detour into Afghanistan to avoid a dangerous route in Pakistan.

Buses have been taking the lengthy detours fore the past few years to avoid the direct Kurram to Peshawar route.

In Kandahar, a civilian was killed as he drove his car past the motorbike as the bomb planted on it exploded. The blast set cars on fire and damaged a shopping centre.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, demonstrators marched to protest against the killing of two civilians by US troops on Wednesday.

The new US commander of Nato forces, Gen David Petraeus, has stressed he remains committed to the policy of his predecessor in trying to reduce civilian casualties, a continuing point of contention between the international forces and the Afghan government.

Five Afghan soldiers were accidentally killed in a Nato helicopter air strike on Wednesday.

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Uri Brodsky is suspected of helping to forge a German passport used in connection with the murder of a Hamas operative in Dubai.

Mr Brodsky, an Israeli citizen, was detained in Poland in June on an arrest warrant issued by Germany.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, was found dead in a Dubai hotel on 20 January.

Dubai police have said they are 99% sure that members of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad were involved, although Israel says there is no proof.

“The court has decided to hand over Uri Brodsky to German authorities for judicial procedures there,” Judge Tomasz Talkiewicz said, following the closed hearing at Warsaw regional court.

“The court did not decide whether Brodsky committed the crime for which he is under investigation, the court only checked whether the extradition request fulfils the formal requirements and whether the suspect is correctly identified,” he added.

‘Mistaken identity’

Mr Brodsky, who was arrested by border guards at Warsaw airport last month, has three days to appeal against the decision.

However, his lawyers say no decision has yet been made. They argue it is a case of mistaken identity and he is not the man wanted in Germany.

Mr Brodsky hid his face from reporters as he walked to the courtroom escorted by anti-terrorist police officers.

He showed no reaction when the ruling was announced.

Forged passports from the UK, the Irish Republic, France, Australia, and Germany were used in the Dubai operation, leading to diplomatic rows between those countries and Israel.

The UK and Australia have expelled Israeli diplomats over the forgeries.

Dubai police have identified more than 30 suspects in the case.