Search: Afghanistan UK troops
Tributes have been paid to the five British soldiers murdered by an Afghan police officer as the death of another UK serviceman was announced.
The troops shot dead at a police checkpoint on Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Taliban were remembered as "men of courage".
They ranged from a teenage guardsman about to celebrate his 19th birthday to one of the Army's most senior non-commissioned officers, who was due to become a father for the fourth time.
Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police.
They had been living and working at the police checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province for about a fortnight as part of a 16-man British military mentoring team.
The manhunt for the killer, named only as Gulbuddin, was continuing amid reports that the Taliban had claimed he was "safe" and back with them.
As Regimental Sergeant Major, WO1 Chant, who was born in Walthamstow, east London, was the top non-commissioned officer in the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards. On the day he was killed he was due to be told he had been awarded a commission as an officer.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
He leaves his pregnant widow, Nausheen Chant, and three children from a previous marriage, Connor, 16, Adam, 10, and Victoria, eight. Mrs Chant said: "Our unborn son will never meet his father but he will know him through his legacy. For whether in uniform or out, his incomparable courage and selflessness humbled all those who knew and loved him. His famed sense of humour lightened any situation. I will miss my best friend and nothing will fill the void he has left, my darling Darren."
Meanwhile, the wife of an explosives expert killed while defusing a bomb in Afghanistan said he was a hero and a "preserver of life". Speaking at Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, after Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid's body was repatriated, Christina said: "I am very pleased to have my husband home, he is an absolute hero."
The Ministry of Defence latter confirmed another British soldier, from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, was killed in an explosion near Sangin in Helmand on Thursday morning. His family has been informed. A total of 230 UK troops have died since the mission in Afghanistan began in October 2001.
