A British soldier fighting in Afghanistan has been accused of chopping off the fingers of dead Taliban fighters - which he then kept as 'macabre' souvenirs.
The squaddie, from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders,is said to have carried out the horrific ritual during the battalion's last tour which ended in April, the Daily Mail reported. The Ministry of Defence, which is probing the allegations,would not be drawn on whether the soldier in question had been suspended pending the investigation's findings.
"This is a very serious allegation and it would be wrong for us to comment. An investigation is ongoing," a Defence Ministry official said.
However, The Sun quoting sources said, "There is a rumour that he may have wanted to keep them as souvenirs, which is
macabre in the extreme". "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 claims centre on the battalion's last tour of duty in the war-torn country. The solider was deployed in Helmand province from September 2010 until April this year, tasked with training Afghan police.
"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," a source was saying.
The SIB officers investigate allegations of criminality in the armed forces and specialise in cases which are considered
too serious to be dealt with by the standard Royal Military Police.
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