Squaddie ‘chops off
Taliban fingers’
Scot probed over digits stash
Fighters ... man is accused of cutting off fingers of Taliban corpses
REUTERS We need Our Boys aggressive to do job
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By ANDY McNAB
By ANDY McNAB
WHAT we have to remember is that this is not a knitting circle - these lads are trained killers and we need them to be aggressive.
You want the lads to get sparked up, to get excited, because that's what allows them to do things they would never do in normal life.
In turn, though, the officers who are in charge of them have a huge role to play when situations like this one arise.
They are told in training that they have to 'grip' the soldiers - they have to curb their worst excesses as soon as they arise.
This guy should have been quickly sat down and told that what he was doing was out of order.
Whether the officers didn't know about it or were too weak to stop it doesn't matter - there has clearly been a failure of the command structure here.
I've seen people take ears and fingers from dead enemy.
Generally it was because they wanted a souvenir.
But a few days later they are going to look at it and think 'What the hell did I do that for?'.
Most likely that is why this guy was doing what he did.
Sometimes it's the trigger finger of the dead enemy that gets chopped, to send a message to those of them who are left behind.
Head was hacked off by Gurkha
ONE Gurkha soldier on a mission to capture a "high value" Taliban target hacked the HEAD off an enemy his patrol had killed.
The horror, in Babaji, Afghanistan, happened in July last year when men from the 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, were posted there.
And last month the highest court in Europe - the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights - ruled that alleged victims of UK soldiers in Iraq could go to the High Court in London and seek justice.
They included "Samir", a teenage boy who was allegedly raped by two British soldiers in May 2003.
Bariq Abdul-Razzaq, 12, and Muslim Sami Abdul Hassan, 14, were also said to have been relentlessly punched and kicked by British soldiers.
A SCOTS squaddie has been accused of slicing off the fingers of dead Taliban fighters.
The soldier, from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, is under investigation over claims he kept the digits from mutilated corpses in Afghanistan.A source revealed: "The allegations have rocked the battalion."
Army top brass were last night probing the claims that a soldier kept the severed fingers as "macabre" souvenirs.
The horrific allegations centre around the last tour of duty carried out there by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland.
And the Army's elite Special Investigation Branch have now launched an urgent probe after the shocking accusations were reported to them.
'Baffled' ... Clive Fairweather
"These allegations have rocked the battalion. That said, they are being kept very hush hush for obvious reasons.
"Only one soldier is said to have been involved.
"The Afghanistan tour was his first one and it's possible that the stresses of that made him do these horrific things."
The allegations are particularly shocking because of the Muslim tradition that a dead person must be buried with all their body parts.
Soldiers from the Argylls, known as 5 Scots, took over as Britain's lead presence in Helmand last September.
They travelled to the country as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade, along with Penicuik-based 2 Scots, The Royal Highland Fusiliers.
It was the Argylls' second tour to the country and they took over the running of the Helmand Police Training Centre, where 4,000 recruits were to be put through intensive eight-week courses.
'Sickening' ... Willie Rennie
The source continued: "The guy who is supposed to have mutilated these bodies came back with his mates in the spring, then went away on holiday somewhere.
"It seems these allegations surfaced then, and he was hauled in for a grilling by the Special Investigation Branch when he got back."
The SIB officers investigate allegations of criminality in the armed forces.
They specialise in cases which are considered too serious to be dealt with by the standard Royal Military Police.
Last night Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie called for urgent action to be taken over the shocking allegations.
He said: "If these sickening acts were the result of severe military trauma, then the Army needs to act quickly to ensure that others are not suffering in this way."
Clive Fairweather, a retired colonel and SAS commander who was an honorary colonel of the Argylls' Cadet Force, said that he was "baffled and shocked" by the mutilation claims.
Mission ... 5 Scots were in Afghanistan to train local police and also captured Taliban targets
"Throughout training it is drummed into soldiers that they must treat enemy dead with the same respect they treat their own dead. I have been in situations where there have, of course, been dead enemy soldiers.
"If you cannot get them evacuated by helicopter, then you give them a decent burial.
"In all my time in the Army, both with Scottish soldiers and with the SAS, I have never heard of anything like this happening.
"Taking trophies from dead combatants is a sure fire way to provoke anger in the local population."
The claims also sparked horror and outrage at The Veterans' Charity. A spokesman said: "There is no one in the armed forces who would condone these actions.
"That said, unless you have been there, it's impossible to understand the stresses these highly professional soldiers are placed under.
"I would hope that the soldier concerned would be offered the proper support if these allegations are found to be true."
Last night a spokeswoman for the Army confirmed the Special Investigation Branch were involved in the case and a probe had been launched.
She added: "We are aware of the allegation and the SIB are investigating."
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/3739326/Squaddie-chops-off-Taliban-fingers.html#ixzz1UU5OiZ97
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