Afghan troops use drugs ‘like cigarettes’

The UK troops were murdered by an Afghan policeman on November 3, 2009.

The soldiers were gunned down without warning by an officer they had been living alongside at an Afghan National Police (ANP) checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province.

Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police.

They had just returned from a patrol and had taken off their body armour and were drinking tea with their Afghan colleagues.

The suspect, named only as Gulbuddin, suddenly opened fire from the roof of the checkpoint with a machine gun, then fled.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders and some reports suggested Gulbuddin had escaped back to them, but military sources have previously suggested the attack was probably unconnected to the insurgents.

Another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen were wounded in the attack.

The preliminary hearing, held at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, was told that the taking of opium and cannabis was commonplace amongst the ANP.

The hearing was also told that Gulbuddin was a cannabis user.

Coroner David Ridley said: “There is a culture that smoking of opium or cannabis is, to them, like to us the smoking of cigarettes.”

The hearing was told that the full inquest will also hear evidence that members of the ANP would also turn up late for training, be absent from whole sessions and would not listen to their mentors.

However Mr Ridley added that there was no evidence that Gulbuddin was under the influence of drugs at the time of the attack.

He said the full inquest was expected to be heard in April or May.