UK marine faces life in jail for killing Afghan prisoner

A British soldier is facing life in prison after a court martial found him guilty of cold-blooded battlefield execution of a severely wounded Afghan prisoner.

On Friday, the 39-year-old serviceman, known only as Marine A, was convicted of shooting the bloodied and moaning Taliban captive in the chest at close range with a 9mm pistol in a remote area in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand on September 15, 2011.

Two other Marines, B and C, alleged to have been “party to the killing”, were acquitted after the two-and-a-half week hearing in Bulford village in Britain’s southwestern county of Wiltshire.

The graphic clips captured by a camera mounted on the helmet of one of the marines formed the basis of the proceedings that the Afghan national had been ruthlessly killed.

In the footage, which the court has refused to release for fear of encouraging reprisals, the man is dragged roughly from a field, where he was injured in an air strike from a British helicopter.

As the wounded Afghan convulsed on the ground, Marine A shoots him at close range in the center of his chest.

The British soldier then taunts him and says, “There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.”

A few moments later, Marine A turns to comrades and says “Obviously this doesn’t go anywhere fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention.”

Brigadier Bill Dunham, Deputy Commandant General Royal Marines, termed the murder as “truly shocking and appalling.”

British troops have been based in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion there in 2001. According to the website icasualties.org, Britain has lost 446 troops in the war-battered Asian country.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troops.