British soldiers killed in latest 'green on blue' incident - Telegraph.co.uk

The deaths bring the total number of British fatalities in Afghanistan to 422.

David Cameron led the tributes to the soldiers.

"I am deeply saddened by the appalling news that three British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to their families," the Prime Minister said.

"These brave soldiers were demonstrating great courage to help prevent Afghanistan once again become a haven for international terrorists and therefore to help keep us safe here in the UK.

"The suspected perpetrator is in custody and we will do everything in our power, with the Afghan National Security Forces, to ensure that justice is done."

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, denounced the incident as a "cowardly act".

The dead soldiers were all members of an advisory team training the Afghan police and had visited the checkpoint to conduct a shura, or meeting.

"On leaving, they were engaged by small arms fire by a man wearing an Afghan Police uniform," the Ministry of Defence said.

"During this exchange of fire the three soldiers were wounded and despite receiving first aid at the scene, they died of their injuries." The killer was a member of the Afghan Civil Order Police, who have a reputation for better training and greater discipline than the notorious national police.

A fierce argument had preceded the shooting according to one police source in Helmand.

"There was an argument between the foreigners and the Afghans. There was a lot of shouting and then suddenly there was shooting," the source said.

Ghulam Sakhi Ghafoori, head of the civil order police in Helmand, named the killer as Ziauddin, a 25-year-old from Baghlan province who had joined the force seven months ago.

All the police at that checkpoint had been detained for questioning he said.

The shooting is the third time this year that British servicemen have been killed by their allies and brings their death toll from such attacks to seven in 2012.

It is also the deadliest such incident to hit the British since 2010 when three members of the Gurkhas were killed in their base by an Afghan soldier who fled into the night and remains on the run.

In 2009, five soldiers from the Grenadier Guards battlegroup were murdered by a policeman.

British officers said the latest incident could undermine the current strategy of embedding small numbers of troops with Afghan forces as they train and advise them.

Some are also now calling for a more cautious, American approach to security when working alongside Afghans.

US military advisers have tightened security since two colleagues were shot dead at their desks in the Ministry of Interior by an Afghan military driver in a revenge attack for the burning of Korans at Bagram airfield.

They now insist at least one American soldier stands at a distance, with his weapon "cocked and locked", at all times during joint meetings or operations.

"The concern is going to be where is the whole mentoring and training programme going to go with 'green on blues' happening with this regularity?" said one officer.

"Look at what happened when the French had green on blue with four dead, they announced within hours that they were leaving Afghanistan."

Following the attack, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary general, said: "The Taliban has clearly played out a strategy to undermine the confidence in the Afghan security forces but let me also stress that they cannot derail our strategy.

"Our strategy is to gradually hand over full responsibility for security to the Afghans and that process will continue and be completed by the end of 2014.

"This is the reason why it's an essential part of our mission in Afghanistan to try to educate Afghan security forces to build up their capability to take full responsibility and these training efforts will continue."