British soldier 'killed by smoke shell' sent to confuse Taliban

A British soldier was killed in Afghanistan when a smoke shell intended to confuse the Taliban fell short of its target and hit an army compound, an inquest heard today.

Sapper Mark Antony Smith, 26, from Swanley, Kent, died in the Sangin area of Helmand on July 26, 2010 after a smoke screen shell fell 264 metres from its target, the inquest heard.

The serviceman, from 36 Engineer Regiment, was with the Counter Improvised Explosive Device (IED) taskforce when he was caught in the blast.

British Army Lieutenant Colonel Edward Moorehouse was controlling the fire mission, which was under US Army command.

He said that out of the 136 rounds fired that day, two fell short of their target, hitting two separate army compounds.

One smoke shell fell more than 450 metres from its target in the morning, hitting compound eight, but no-one was injured.

The second shell fired later in the afternoon killed Sapper Smith and injured two others when it hit compound 22, the inquest heard.

Lt Col Moorehouse said: “We were seriously lucky we didn’t have a precursor to what happened in compound 22 in compound eight.

“The round wasn’t going where it was being told to go. Something had gone badly wrong there.”

The fatal smoke shell, or round, was being fired over compound 22 from an army base 8km away.

All 136 rounds had been fired at the same location, south of compound 22, since 8am that morning.

The smoke shells, which saturate the surrounding area with smoke, were used to help troops travel subtly between compounds.

Lt Col Moorehouse explained: “We wanted to get into the insurgents’ minds and try and psychologically unhinge them.”