This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

An experienced British officer was shot dead by a rogue member of the Afghan army as he played football on Remembrance Day, an inquest has heard.

Captain Walter Barrie, who had completed tours of Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, was taking part in a match with members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Helmand province when a gunman in full uniform strode on to the pitch and fired nine shots with an assault rifle.

The gunman, who was in his teens or early 20s, moved towards a welfare tent while still firing, but was shot dead by Barrie's colleagues. A smoke grenade was thrown on to the pitch to conceal the officer's body and allow medics to reach him, but he could not be saved.

After the shooting, it emerged that the gunman's brother had recently been injured after he launched an attack on Spanish troops, but this was not known at the time of Barrie's death.

The inquest in Oxford was told that security had been stepped up at the camp in the Nad-e Ali district after the attack last year.

Barrie, 41, from Midlothian in south-east Scotland, had served for 25 years.

At the time of the attack in November last year, Barrie, of the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was advising a brigade of the ANA as it prepared to take over security in the area.

British troops often play football with their Afghan counterparts, partly to forge strong relationships. The gunman was later identified as Mohammad Ashraf.

Private Ryan Houston, who was on duty as a "guardian angel" to patrol the base, told the hearing that he heard "a burst of fire" as Ashraf approached. "I turned in the direction of the football pitch. Capt Barrie was not moving and appeared motionless. I think I shouted: 'Man down'," he said. "I could see he was injured. He was alive, he was making gasping sounds."

A postmortem found that Barrie died of a gunshot to the chest.

Sergeant George Parker said the gunman was "firing from the hip". He said relations with ANA members on the base had been "generally very good" and that the soldiers played football together almost every day.

Major Andrew Lumley told the inquest Ashraf had been based at a checkpoint 150 metres from the base and walked into the camp by an entrance controlled by the ANA.

There had been no "specific intelligence" linking the rogue soldier with the earlier attack on Spanish troops, he said.

Darren Salter, the coroner, said Ashraf could have been motivated by the injury his brother suffered in the earlier attack. Salter said Barrie was a "highly experienced" soldier who was held in high esteem by the Afghan troops he trained.