Soldier killed in Afghan blast ‘at front of insurgency drive’

L/Cpl Joseph Pool, from the Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed in an explosion in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand, southern Afghanistan, on September 5, 2010.

The 26-year-old, who was part of Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF) – a reactive support group – was on a four-day operation to lend extra weight to a checkpoint that had been coming under fire from insurgents.

Trowbridge Coroners Court in Wiltshire heard the father of two died almost instantly from blast injuries when the compound he was in came under fire.

At the time of his death L/Cpl Pool had not been wearing his body armour, but the inquest was told this would not have affected the outcome following the grenade attack.

The purpose of the operation was to dominate and disrupt insurgent activities in the area which was being used as an insurgent weapons route to attack ISAF checkpoints.

The inquest heard L/Cpl Pool, from Greenock, Renfrewshire, was selected as part of the “cream of the crop” from across the brigade.

Capt Ben Dowdeswell, who was leading L/Cpl Pool’s troop, said he was “dependable” and “reliable” and that as part of the BRF he had gone through a rigorous selection process.

“What we were doing was that bit more dangerous, it required skill and capability,” said Capt Dowdeswell.

At 11pm on September 4 L/Cpl Pool’s troop left Patrol Base Shazad on foot heading toward their objective target, referred to as compound 72, the inquest heard.

Capt Dowdeswell told the inquest it had taken all night to reach the compound as they moved across country, wading through muddy fields in the dark, carrying heavy equipment and weapons.

Once they arrived at between 5.30am and 6am they secured the compound from the inside and sections of the troop had been stood down and were preparing breakfast and drying out their kit.

But after about 20 minutes the troop began to take small arms fire.

“We were in sporadic contact from the north. There are a number of tree lines, basically they began using these as their rat runs,” Capt Dowdeswell said.

“There was one RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) at that stage that went way over the top (of the compound).”

The inquest was told the firing began to die down during which time L/Cpl Pool went to help L/Cpl Andrew Garthwaite (Geordie) at his position on the north side of the compound to identify enemy firing points.

Temperatures that morning had already reached 40C and L/Cpl Pool, who had removed his protective body armour to dry it out, had not put it back on, the inquest heard.