According to Skynews, two British soldiers allegedly shot dead by two rogue Afghan
policemen posed for pictures with their suspected killers moments before they
died, an inquest was told.
Corporal Brent McCarthy, 25, and Lance Corporal Lee Davies, 27, died of
gunshot wounds in an attack at an Afghan police base in the Lashkar Gah district
of Helmand province on Saturday, May 12, last year.
The inquest at Oxfordshire Coroners Court was shown several photographs
including one of Cpl McCarthy, of the Royal Air Force, with one of the policemen
each holding the other's weapon.
Another showed both Afghans posing for the camera with their own AK47
rifles.
It also emerged during evidence that it was unclear to several soldiers which
of them was tasked with keeping his comrades in the patrol safe from an insider
attack.
The role was regarded as being the 'guardian angel' of the group.
L/Cpl Davies and Cpl McCarthy had been part of an eight-man British Army
patrol, with an interpreter, who regularly advised and trained Afghans at a
nearby base run by local forces.
Cpl McCarthy - an RAF policeman - acted as a specialist advisor.
On the occasion when the deaths occurred, the patrol had arrived at the base
without warning so the British could question the local police commander about a
tip-off that one of his fellow commanders was working with the Taliban.
A short while after the patrol arrived, there was a burst of gunfire which
left both servicemen including L/Cpl Davies, of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards,
fatally injured.
The two suspected killers, dressed in police uniforms, were seen dashing out
the base's main gate and across fields by another British soldier who managed to
fire a shot at one of them.
One of the suspects was pursued and killed, while the other shooter
escaped.
Guardsman Joshua Foley, of the Welsh Guards, said the training group had "a
good relationship" with the Afghans but added a new local police unit had moved
into the base meaning there were several unfamiliar faces when they had arrived
that afternoon.
As guardsman Foley was stood with L/Cpl Davies and Cpl McCarthy, two Afghan
policemen passed them near the main entrance to the base and there was an
attempt by the British soldiers to strike up some "banter".
"We tried to have a laugh with them but they didn't seem to get it,"
Guardsman Foley told the coroner.
However, Cpl McCarthy then produced his camera and the Afghans agreed to have
some photos taken, including with the RAF policeman.
Guardsman Foley then described how L/Cpl Davies commented to his fellow
soldiers that one of the Afghans appeared to have a wet patch between his
legs.
He then left L/Cpl Davies and Cpl McCarthy with the policemen to take up duty
in one of the base's two guard towers.
Describing what happened next, he said: "I heard a rapid burst of shots, and
as I looked I saw the two Afghan police holding their weapons and L/Cpl Davies
was lying back."
"I did not see the Afghan police fire any shots but they both ran out of the
main entrance."
He was asked by counsel for the McCarthy family, Sebastian Naughton, about
who he understood to have taken on the guardian angel role.
Guardsman Foley said he had assumed the role was initially his as he was "the
spare man" until he went to relieve a sentry in the guard tower, when it passed
to the next man.
His colleague L/Cpl Jo Price confirmed the informal arrangement but Mr
Naughton said it had been suggested elsewhere in evidence that Cpl McCarthy had
been the guardian angel.
Meanwhile, in later evidence, second in command that day Sergeant Robert
Heath told the coroner he had specifically tasked L/Cpl Davies with the job, and
also with rotating the sentries.
The inquest continues.
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