British Soldiers Posed With 'Killers' Before Deaths
Two British soldiers 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.
Sky News.
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