Why I did it, by the Afghan traitor who killed three British soldiers



A man claiming to be the rogue Afghan soldier who murdered three British troops said last night that he had killed them because he was angry with the conduct of UK forces in Afghanistan.

He said he had carried out the murders because the British had 'killed civilians', including children, in his home country.

The man, who claimed his name was Talib Hussein, said he had acted alone and that he had not been in contact with the Taliban at the time of the attack.



Fallen hero: Major James Bowman, who was shot by a renegade Afghan soldier on Tuesday, surrounded by Gurkha comrades in Helmand

But he said that he had joined the Taliban since, and that they were now sheltering him.

Talib Hussein is suspected of killing Major James Bowman, 34, Lieutenant Neal Turkington, 26, and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun in a gun and rocket-propelled grenade attack on Tuesday.

Hussein, who the three had previously considered a trusted colleague, is now being hunted by elite Special Forces troops.

Last night the man claiming to be Hussein contacted the BBC's Kabul bureau via a Taliban intermediary.

Journalist Dawood Azami, of the BBC World Service, was given a mobile phone number to call by the Taliban. The phone was then passed to a man who claimed to be 21-year-old Talib Hussein from the central Ghazni province of Afghanistan.

During the ten-minute interview the man accused British troops in Helmand province of killing civilians, including children.

When challenged over civilian deaths at the hands of the Taliban, the man described the insurgents as 'Mujahideen' fighting for their country.

He claimed that British soldiers were not there to secure and rebuild Afghanistan - and accused the Army of plotting suicide-attacks and deliberate killings of Afghan civilians. He added that the shooting of British soldiers had been his own idea, and that he had had no contact with the Taliban, Iran or Pakistan beforehand.



Corporal Arjun Purja Pun (left) and Lieutenant Neal Turkington were also killed by the gunman, who has gone on the run



Hussein is believed to have carried out the brutal attack at Patrol Base Three, a fortress near Bababi in central Helmand, using a machine gun and a rocket-propelled grenade.

He is believed to have shot dead Major Bowman, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, as he slept in a tent. He then launched a rocket-propelled grenade at the base used by Lt Turkington, of Portadown, Northern Ireland, and Cpl Pun, a senior Nepalese Gurkha soldier. Hussein had been living, eating and fighting alongside the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles prior to the attack.

The BBC said it 'could not be certain' that the man that spoke to them was Hussein but said its reporter had questioned him about his name, age, ethnicity, home village and the duration of his military service and that all the details had been correct. The Taliban had already claimed they were sheltering the renegade soldier who shot the British troops at a base in Helmand province.

Responding to the claims in a statement, the Ministry of Defence said: 'While we cannot comment on the legitimacy of this individual's claims to be the suspect responsible for this cowardly attack, it is ridiculous to suggest that we are engaged in suicide attacks or are deliberately killing civilians.

'Insurgents and those who are against the coalition mission in Afghanistan routinely make false and exaggerated claims.'