(top row, from left) Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith and Sergeant Matthew Telford (bottom row from left) Guardsman James Major and Corporal Steven Boote Photo: PA

 

Matthew Telford: One of the soldiers killed has been named as Matthew Telford, from Grimsby Photo: BBC

 

 

 

A casualty arriving at a hospital in Helmand Province, Afghanistan Photo: PA

Surveillance drones, M16 intelligence officers and special forces liaison officers have all been drafted in to find the officer named as Gulbuddin.

Satellite imagery and reconnaissance aircraft such as the new Astor Sentinel will also be used to track movements from the Nad-e-Ali area.

Three Grenadier Guards and two members of the Royal Military Police were shot dead. Six others were seriously wounded alongside two Afghans.

It is suspected that Gulbuddin, who fled the scene of the killing on a motorbike, is likely to have been smuggled out of the area along well established narcotics smuggling routes used by the Taliban.

“If he was not a member of the Taliban before I am sure he will certainly look towards them now to get away from the huge manhunt that is closing around him,” said an intelligence source.

British soldiers are working “very closely” with Afghan local intelligence forces and with national security to close the net on the suspect.

“We are gathering intelligence and interrogating that intelligence,” said the source. While it was too early to say precisely what role special forces will undertake it is understood that the SAS or SBS will be put on standby to snatch the policeman if his location becomes known.

Meanwhile British soldiers continued to train Afghan National Police today taking them out the ranges for live firing and accompanying them at checkpoints.

However an urgent review is underway to look at changing security measures.

The five soldiers killed at the compound in Nad-e-Ali were Sgt Matthew Telford, 37, Guardsman James Major, 18, and WO1 Darren Chant, 39, all of the Grenadier Guards, and Acting Cpl Steven Boote and Cpl Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, of the Royal Military Police. They were relaxing after finishing a patrol when the gunman opened fire with an assault rifle.

The shooting has led to questions in the Commons over the West’s plan to train Afghan forces to take over security from Nato troops, and intensified calls for a clear exit strategy for British forces.

Ninety-two British service personnel have been killed this year in Afghanistan, making 2009 the worst year for British forces since the Falklands war. The total British death toll in the conflict is now 229.

Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell told GMTV that troops needed to continue to work with Afghan police in order to reach a point where they could withdraw.

“We believe that we are right to be in Afghanistan. If you look back at the country in 2001 there were huge numbers of terrorists operating there targeting this country, and were we and other countries to withdraw undoubtedly the Taliban would come back.”

He said that a withdrawal would result in, “mass instability” and compromise the security of this country.

The Conservatives also insisted the soldiers would finish their job.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague told BBC Breakfast: “My view is that what we are there to do is help Afghans govern themselves without being a threat to the rest of the world including ourselves.

“That is what we have to persist in because the consequences of walking away… for our own security would be very serious indeed.

“There is a lot to be done and we should be very worried about the situation but we should not pull out now.”

An opinion poll last month indicated that only 27 per cent of British voters supported a long-term deployment.