. Space Travel News .




.
THE STANS
Soldiers shot by Afghan police were British: London
by Staff Writers
London (AFP) May 13, 2012



Two soldiers shot dead in southern Afghanistan by local police officers were British, the Ministry of Defence confirmed on Sunday a day after the killings.

"Sadly, it is my duty to confirm that a soldier serving with 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and an airman from The Royal Air Force have been shot and killed in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province," said Major Ian Lawrence, spokesman for Task Force Helmand.

The ministry said in a statement that the two were "shot and killed by members of the Afghan police force", although NATO's force in Afghanistan had on Saturday indicated they were insurgents dressed as police.

A police spokesman said they were members of the force, however, and a senior security official in the province said they had been in the Afghan police force for about a year.

The two had been working as part of an advisory team and were providing security for a meeting with local officials at the time, the ministry's statement said.

ISAF said Saturday that one of the attackers had been killed and the other was still being sought.

The killings bring this year's toll in "green-on-blue" attacks -- in which Afghan forces turn their weapons against their Western Allies -- to 22, in a total of 16 such incidents.

An increasing number of Afghan troops have turned their weapons on NATO soldiers who are helping Kabul fight a decade-long insurgency by hardline Taliban Islamists.

Some of the assaults are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between the allied forces.

ISAF has taken several security measures in response to the shootings, including assigning "guardian angels" -- soldiers who watch over their comrades as they sleep.

The families of the two British soldiers have been informed, the ministry said.

The killings bring the British toll in the more than 10-year Afghan war to 412.

Britain has some 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, mainly based in Helmand.

They form part of a 130,000-strong ISAF force fighting alongside some 350,000 Afghan security personnel against the Taliban-led insurgency, but the foreign troops are due to pull out of the country in 2014.

Two other NATO soldiers died Saturday, one in a bomb blast and the other as a result of a "non-battle related injury", ISAF said, without giving the nationalities of any of the victims.

Related Links
News From Across The Stans




.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries



And it's 3... 2... 1... blastoff! Discover the thrill of a real-life rocket launch.



.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



THE STANS
Merkel says NATO must stick to Afghanistan timetable
Berlin (AFP) May 10, 2012
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that the timetable laid out by NATO for international troops to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 must be respected. "The principle which applies for the German government is: we entered (Afghanistan) together, we will leave together," she said after comments by French president-elect Francois Hollande that he wanted to pull French tro ... read more


THE STANS
SpaceX boss admits sleep elusive before ISS launch

Air Force launches 2nd advanced satellite

A trio of Ariane 5 launchers are now at the Spaceport

United Launch Alliance Urges IAM Members to Vote in Favor of New Contract

THE STANS
Antarctic stay to mimic Mars mission

Mars Rover Opportunity Hits Paydirt At Endeavour

Ancient Volcanic Blast Provides More Evidence of Water on Early Mars

Opportunity Getting Ready To Leave Her Winter Perch

THE STANS
Perigee "Super Moon" On May 5-6

India's second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 to wait

European Google Lunar X Prize Teams Call For Science Payloads

Russia to Send Manned Mission to Moon by 2030

THE STANS
Uranus auroras glimpsed from Earth

Herschel images extrasolar analogue of the Kuiper Belt

THE STANS
Looking for Earths by looking for Jupiters

Some giant planets in other systems most likely to be alone

Four white dwarf stars caught in the act of consuming 'earth-like' exoplanets

Three Earthlike planets identified by Cornell astronomers

THE STANS
Aerojet's AJ26 Flight Engine Successfully Hot-Fire Tested for Orbital's Antares Rocket

Russia Develops Revolutionary Ammonia Rocket Engine

Dragon Expected to Set Historic Course

Aerojet Completes Testing of Next-Generation Exploration Thruster

THE STANS
China's Lunar Docking

Shenzhou-9 may take female astronaut to space

China to launch 100 satellites during 2011-15

Three for Tiangong

THE STANS
Throwing pebbles to divert asteroid?

Dawn Completes 800 Orbits Of Vesta

Mining Asteroids - A New Industry

Dawn Reveals Secrets of Giant Asteroid Vesta


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement