Afghan blasts claimed livesof two soldiers

Two soldiers were killed when their foot patrol was hit by two explosions in Afghanistan, an inquest heard today.

Lance Corporal Scott Hardy, 26, and Private James Grigg, 21, both of 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, died in Helmand Province on March 16, this year.

The men suffered “catastrophic injuries” when the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) went off in an area about 13 miles north of Musa Qalah district in Helmand province, the hearing in Trowbridge was told.

L/Cpl Hardy, from Chelmsford, Essex and Pte Grigg from Stradbrooke, near Eye in Suffolk were on a two-day operation into “a hotbed” of insurgent activity and had flown in to shake them up and talk to local people.

Company commander Major Stuart Smith said the patrol the men died on was a joint operation with the Afghan National Army and police.

The day before the deaths the unit had been dropped by helicopter behind the insurgents in an area the battalion had not been to before; it was considered to have a low IED threat.

The operation also had Apache attack helicopter support and it had reported men unravelling wire and acting suspiciously.

But the hearing heard the explosions were likely to have been pressure-plate devices the soldiers stepped on, probably of low metal content, and not activated by a command wire.

Major Smith said he heard an explosion while in another section on the afternoon patrol and heard L/Cpl Hardy say over the radio: “Contact IED wait”.

The officer then said there was immediately another explosion and he rushed to the scene with a medic.

The patrol had been hit as it stopped for cover behind an earth embankment.

“There were three casualties Scott, James and (Captain) Simon (Broomfield),” he explained “It was quite clear that Scott was dead. James was being treated. He had suffered a double amputation and was being treated by our team medics.”

Major Smith said the patrol came under small arms fire immediately after the explosions and several Taliban were killed in the exchange.

The hearing heard that Pte Grigg, who was a keen cricketer and had the nickname Giggles, was talking at first and even winked and showed his tongue to his comrades but then he stopped breathing before the evacuation helicopter arrived.

“The guys did everything they could. We thought, to begin with, he was going to be all right,” Major Smith said.

“I knew both of them. They were both great men,” he added.

Platoon commander Captain Broomfield, who is undergoing rehabilitation for his injuries at Headley Court in Surrey, said he had made the decision with L/Cpl Hardy to stop patrol at the site of the blast because both considered the threat from small arms fire was greater than that from IEDs and the embankment offered protection.

The area had been swept by metal detectors before the patrol stopped at the site of the blast, the hearing was told.

Wiltshire and Swindon coroner David Ridley recorded verdicts of unlawful killing while on active service.