A soldier who was shot dead in Afghanistan in the latest suspected “green on blue” attack was named as combat engineer Richard Walker.
The 23-year-old father-of-one was killed by a rogue member of the Afghan National Army while serving his first tour of Afghanistan with 28 Engineer Regiment.
He was assisting engineers at Patrol Base Hazrat, in the Nahr-e Saraj district, when the attack took place.
His family called the Leeds-born soldier a “proud, patriotic man… doing a job he loved”.
The soldier’s death brought to 439 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001.
Britain has around 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making it the second-largest contributor to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force after the United States.
They are based in central Helmand, battling Taliban insurgents and training local security forces. The government intends to pull out all its combat troops by the end of 2014.
Soldier killed in Afghanistan named
