Soldier's family 'numb' over rogue murder

Lieutenant Neal Turkington, 26, from Portadown, Co Armagh, was one of three soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles murdered on Tuesday by the rogue member of the Afghan National Army who had been working alongside them at the command base, near the provincial capital of Helmand Province, Lashkar Gar.

It is understood he died alongside a Nepalese Gurkha when the soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the command centre. The Afghan also shot a major while he slept in his quarters.

A manhunt is under way for the Afghan, whom the Taliban say is part of the insurgency and being sheltered by the group.

Upper Bann MP David Simpson, who visited the Turkington family, said: "They are going through a lot of emotions – a mixture of shock, numbness, sadness, everything rolled into one.

"I suppose it's going to take a few days for the whole circumstances of the tragedy to sink in but at this stage, there are still a lot more answers to get."

A fourth British servicemen was killed in Afghanistan late on Tuesday when a Royal Marine was shot dead while on foot patrol in the Sangin district.

Three United States troops died when a suicide attacker rammed a car bomb into the gate of the HQ of the elite Afghan National Civil Order in Kandahar, followed by attackers with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

An Afghan policeman and five civilians also died in the attack, but the Taliban failed to enter the compound. Yesterday four more American soldiers died after being hit by a roadside bomb, while another US service member died of wounds.