KABUL: British soldiers in a Nato-led force shot and killed an Afghan policeman in a vehicle that approached a convoy, despite warnings to keep away, and was seen to be a threat, the military said on Sunday. The vehicle ignored the warnings, which included the firing of a mini-flare, and continued towards a patrol of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in the southern town of Lashkar Gah on Saturday, the force said.

It was ‘judged by the ISAF soldiers to pose a direct threat to their lives’ and they opened fire, it said in a statement.

One of the passengers, who was found later to be a policeman, was wounded and died later in an ISAF hospital, it said, expressing regret.

There have been about 75 such incidents in Afghanistan this year, many of them resulting in fatalities and most in the volatile south where a Taliban-led insurgency, which sees regular suicide bombings, is intense.

Lashkar Gah is the capital of Helmand province, Afghanistan’s premier opium and heroin producer and a stronghold of Taliban fighters who are said to control several of its districts.

Britain has about 8,000 soldiers in ISAF which works alongside a US-led coalition and the Afghan security force in a complex fight against extremist militants.

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