BETRAYAL OF THE BRAVE

‘Heroes of Helmand, the British Army’s Great Escape’.

Speaking from Kabul, the fatherof-five told the Mail: ‘They said I had not been on the frontlines long enough. I was there shoulder-toshoulder when the Taliban were boasting they would soon be drinking tea in the British base after killing everyone inside.

‘I was the soldiers’ eyes and ears during the most dangerous battle of their time here. I would sit beside the intelligence officer and tell him everything the Taliban was saying.

‘ It was the most difficult of times. There were long, fierce attacks every day and night. We slept little and many people thought we were going to die.

‘The soldiers said it was the most dangerous time they knew.’

Fardin’s brother, Farhad, was shot dead by a Taliban sniper while on patrol in Helmand in September 2008. It led to Fardin being transferred to a job with UK forces in Kabul because of fears his family could lose a second son.

But the Taliban had found Farhad’s phone on his body and it contained Fardin’s personal details, including his phone number. He