A British soldier missing in southern Afghanistan for 17 hours was found dead with gunshot wounds last night after an operation to recover him.
His killing overshadowed a visit to Afghanistan by David Cameron, who cancelled a trip to Lashkar Gah so that the military could focus helicopters and special forces on the mission to find him.
It was the first time the Ministry of Defence had acknowledged a British soldier missing in action since the war in Afghanistan started almost ten years ago.
The Prime Minister had hoped to use his trip to mark a new phase in the Afghan campaign that would see troops start to return home. But the soldier’s death will raise questions over the Government’s determination to pull out by the end of 2014. Security for Lashkar Gah is due to be handed over to Afghan forces later this month, with the whole of Helmand next summer.
The dead British soldier, who has not been named, was last seen alive at around 2.30am, when Afghan troops watched him walk past their checkpoint and over a bridge, close to where he was based in central Helmand.
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The soldier, from The Highlanders, the 4th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland, had just finished a shift on sentry duty in Nahr-e Saraj district, when he was seen walking south, along a main road towards the village of Kopak.
It is still not known why he left the protection of a nearby British base. He was wearing British Army uniform and there were no suggestions from officials in Afghanistan or London that he was showing any obvious signs of being under duress.
He was reported missing two hours later, when commanders cancelled operations across the province to focus on the search. Nato officials said that “all the surveillance assets available,” including unmanned and eavesdropping planes, were scrambled to look for unusual Taleban activity and listen for any mention of a captive soldier.
Neither Nato nor the Ministry of Defence called the operation a “rescue” mission, suggesting that officers were not sure if the missing man was dead or alive by the time they started looking.
The soldier was found at around 7.30pm. His family have been informed of his death. Lieutenant Colonel Tim Purbrick, a Nato spokesman, said: “He had suffered gunshot wounds. His exact cause of death is still to be established and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and death are currently under investigation. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
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The soldier’s body was flown to Camp Bastion for formal identification and a post-mortem examination.
The Prime Minister was said to be “deeply saddened”. The soldier was the British Armed Forces’ 375th fatality in the Afghan campaign.
A Taleban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, earlier claimed that the soldier was captured in a gun battle on Sunday night and killed at 3am yesterday, in the crossfire of a rescue operation.
This timeline was at odds with the account pieced together by The Times from Afghan, Nato and British sources.
The Taleban often make opportunist claims of responsibility and exaggerate death tolls.