HEADLINES from GB

Three British soldiers died in Afghanistan and one in Iraq today as the British take control of American forces. The total of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan is 9 in the last 2 months and around 120 in Iraq.

Four British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq
1st August 2006

British soldiers in Afganistans. The latest casualties bring the death toll to 16 since hostilities began

Four British soldiers died today in separate incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Three servicemen were killed when their patrol vehicle came under attack from insurgents in the Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.

In Iraq, a soldier serving with the 1st Battalion Light Infantry became the first soldier to die in an attack on a UK military base.

In one of the deadliest strikes against British troops stationed in Afghanistan in recent months, Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns ambushed the patrol.

The soldiers were part of a the Nato-led international security assistance force carrying out duties in the north of the volatile province.

A fourth soldier was seriously injured and was evacuated to a military hospital where he is in a critical condition.

The Ministry of Defence said the soldiers, who were all travelling in the same vehicle, came under attack at 7.30am local time (4am BST). The vehicle was destroyed in the attack.

In Iraq, the soldier died after a multinational force base in Basra city came under mortar fire at 3am local time (midnight BST).

He was taken to hospital by helicopter but died from his injuries.

The death is the first time a British soldier has been killed inside a military base in Iraq by enemy action.

Responding to today's heavy death toll, Defence Secretary Des Browne paid tribute to the efforts of British troops and stressed his commitment to operations in both countries.

He said: "This morning's news from Afghanistan and Iraq is very sad.

"I know I speak for everyone when I say that our thoughts are with the families and friends of the soldiers who were killed and injured.

"Those responsible for the attacks on our soldiers in Northern Helmand do not want to see security and prosperity brought to the local people.

"We cannot allow them to succeed, and we remain committed to seeing through our part in this vital international effort.

"Nor will the sad death of a British soldier in Basra deflect our support to the elected government in Iraq.

"In both Iraq and Afghanistan our troops are doing a tough job magnificently well. Their courage and commitment demands nothing but admiration."

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox, who recently accompanied Conservative leader David Cameron on a three-day visit to Afghanistan, said: "I visited troops in Helmand last week and was enormously impressed with their courage, commitment and professionalism.

"All our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends."

Referring to the deaths of the three soldiers in Afghanistan, Liberal Democrat shadow defence secretary Nick Harvey said: "These tragic deaths underline the need for a clear military strategy, with achievable objectives.

"This is a vital mission, but with the head of Nato forces describing the country as 'close to anarchy', the Government must be clear about the challenges ahead.

"We must also ensure that British troops have all the equipment and weaponry they require."

The attack in Afghanistan comes a day after the British general leading the Nato troops assumed command of multi-national forces in the lawless south of the country.

Lieutenant-General David Richards heads an 8,000-strong Nato force in the south made up largely of British, Canadian and Dutch troops, as well as some US personnel.

It is believed to be the first time since the Second World War that a UK general - or indeed any general from outside the US - has commanded units of American troops in combat operations.

Nato's mission is considered the most dangerous and challenging in the Western alliance's 57-year history.

It coincides with the deadliest upsurge in fighting in Afghanistan since late 2001, which has killed more than 800 people - mostly militants - since May.

The latest deaths bring the number of British soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two months to nine.

Britain has around 7,000 troops in Iraq and nearly 4,000 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan. This figure is expected to rise to 4,500 by the autumn.

dailymail.co.uk
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The British control American troops in Afghanistan

Times Online July 31, 2006

American Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry (right), commander of coalition forces, and Lieutenant-General David Richards, British commander of Nato, leave after the official handover in Kandahar (Rodrigo Abd/Reuters)

Nato takes over mission to crush Taleban insurgency
By Jeremy Page, of The Times, from Kandahar

Nato launched the biggest combat mission of its 57-year history today when it took over an operation to quell a resurgence of Taleban, drug lords and al-Qaeda operatives in southern Afghanistan.

David Richards, the British Lieutenant-General leading the mission, also became the first Briton (and the first non-American) to command American troops in active combat since Field Marshal Montgomery in the Second World War.

Nato has conducted aerial bombing and peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo — when US troops were also under British command — but that did not involve ground combat.

"It is hugely symbolically and practically important for Nato," said Lieutenant-General Richards, the head of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

"Are we up to it? I’m quite clear we are," he said. "I think in three to six months we can make a difference."

But he added later that Afghanistan would need the current level of military assistance for three to five years and some sort of foreign troop presence for up to 15 years.

Lieutenant-General Richards assumed command of the operation from the American Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry in a ceremony at an airbase in Kandahar, the former Taleban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

Until today, ISAF’s 10,500 troops had operated only in the capital, Kabul, and the more stable north and west, where the central Government has established a degree of control.

Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces have been facing an increasingly fierce insurgency in the east and the lawless south, where much of the poppy crop in Afghanistan is grown.

That insurgency has escalated dramatically this year, claiming at least 1,700 lives since January, in the bloodiest violence in Afghanistan since the Taleban was toppled in late 2001.

Today eight people were killed by a bomb blast at a mosque apparently intended for a provincial governor in the eastern region of Nangarhar. More than 30 insurgents were killed in fighting in the south on Sunday.

ISAF, which now incorporates 37 different countries, will expand to 18,000 troops by October, with more than 10,000 deployed in the south in an attempt to bring the region under Kabul’s control.

Its strategy is to establish zones of stability, where "quick impact" development projects can be implemented to win over the local population and persuade them to stop cultivating poppies.

ISAF aims to secure one such "development zone" in each of the six southern provinces by the end of August, Lieutenant-General Richards said.

However, even he admitted that it was hard to know exactly what ISAF was up against.

"It’s a very complex picture," he said. "A lot of people who call themselves Taleban are not Taleban at all."

They were rather a combination of Taleban hardliners and foot soldiers, drug lords and their henchmen and tribal leaders pursuing their own agendas, he said.

He estimated that they numbered no more than a few thousand in the south and that the number of al-Qaeda operatives and other foreign fighters was minimal.

"Those few thousand who oppose the vast majority of the Afghan people and democratically elected Government should note this historic day and understand that they will not be allowed to succeed," he said at the ceremony today.

But other military and diplomatic sources attribute the sudden rise in the number of suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices this year to an influx of foreign militants, especially from Pakistan.

Many British troops are sceptical about the projected timeframe and intensity of the operation, given the fierce resistance encountered by the 4,000 British troops in the southern province of Helmand.

Among aid and development agencies, there are also grave concerns about launching reconstruction projects at the same time as undertaking such a huge combat operation.

"No doubt the security situation does restrict our ability to deliver development programmes," said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan

thetimesonline.co.uk

This article reminds me of a British Movie "Dirty War:..

I was......just came back on.

Regiment marks Minden Day
02 August 2006 | 07:56

WILL GRAHAME-CLARKE

A salute to past heroes on Minden Day from old Suffolk Regiment soldier Cpl John Hunns at the Regimental Museum in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

12th Regiment of Foot of the British Army, Minden 1759. The British, along with the Prussians, defeated the French.

UPHOLDING a tradition dating back nearly 250 years, the Royal Anglian Regiment remembered its finest hour yesterday.

The traditional day of festivities and events dates back to August 1, 1759, when one of the regiment's forefather battalions, the Suffolk Regiment, was part of a famous victory for the British and Prussians in Minden, Germany. Their combined infantries repulsed the French cavalry with infantry soldiers for the first time in history.

Before taking up their position to face the French, the soldiers of the Suffolk Regiment had picked red and yellow roses from local gardens and wore them in their hats.

Since then the regiment has been merged with others and is part of the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, known as The Vikings.

But the flowers have remained synonymous with the Suffolk Regiment and play a key part in Minden Day celebrations, held at the Suffolk Regiment Museum on Newmarket Road in Bury St Edmunds.

The main Minden Day celebrations took place on Sunday, when almost 250 Royal Anglians visited the museum and other events included a family fair, marching bands, parades and battalion physical training in fancy dress. Soldiers wore red and yellow roses in their hats throughout the day to mark the occasion.

Museum attendant Tim Davies, a former Royal Anglian himself, said: “It is really a big open day for the whole regiment. We had old boys from as far away as Australia come and see us - it was great fun.”

Taff Gillingham, who volunteers at the museum, said: “I've always had an interest in the regiment - I had an uncle and a grandfather who were in the Suffolk Regiment. This museum is not just for soldiers, it is social history really.

“The biggest group we have coming here is women investigating their family history. We have extensive records of the soldiers but even if we can't find a particular soldier we have examples of kit and uniform from all periods so relatives can still get a feel for what it was like for their ancestors.”

Speaking at the Anglians' headquarters in Surrey, Major Charlie Calder said everybody in the regiment was always happy to join in.

“Its not the first thing you think of when you think of the Army - us wearing flowers in our hats - and you would have thought we'd feel a bit silly. But nobody does and everybody wears them all day.

“The celebrations marked the soldiers' final day before a month's leave before returning to start training for a scheduled stint in Afghanistan next year.

John Hunns, 69, who served in Cyprus with the Suffolk Regiment and now volunteers at the Bury museum, said: “I enjoyed my time with the regiment and I am proud of my time with them.

“It is really important to keep the history alive because without museums like ours regiments will disappear.”

Last year the battalion served in Iraq and is currently supporting exercises in Canada.

Maj Bob West TD, OC D Coy, presents Minden Roses to D (Suffolk College) Company at Longmoor, a tradition that takes part every 1st August

http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news ... 3A59%3A103

It's chestnut with a hint of spice and toffee tang. Yes, a fine glass of beer
By Neil Tweedie

(Filed: 02/08/2006)

One of the great pleasures of wine is the gloriously pretentious language one can use to describe it.

So the 1990 Montrose St-Estephe Bordeaux is not simply fruity and full-bodied. Oh no. It is, as one expert recently explained, "huge, corpulent, awesomely endowed", with a taste redolent of "new saddle leather and grilled steak".

Camra's (Campaign for Real Ale) Nick Whitaker with a pint of Crouch Vale Brewers Gold. Unlike North America, Britain is a land of PROPER beer, and has around 2,500 varieties of real ale.

Now, in an attempt to boost beer sales, the Campaign for Real Ale has done the same thing to the humble pint. Yesterday it unveiled its Cyclops scheme, which aims to give newcomers an accurate guide to what they are about to drink.

The system echoes that of some wine makers in using a one-to-five scale for sweetness and bitterness, but it also gets nicely silly when describing colour, smell and taste. Take Everards' Tiger ale. It is now auburn or chestnut brown, smells of spicy hop and toffee, and has a sweet-bitter balance. Caledonian's Deuchars, meanwhile, is golden straw in colour and tastes of grapefruit and lemon sherbet. Then there is Burton bitter - pale amber, dry and biscuity, and smelling of something called Burton snatch.

Everards' Tiger bitter.

Tony Jerome, of Camra, explained: "There are 2,500 real ales available. A scheme like this is needed to help people find what suits their taste buds."

There was general approval yesterday at Camra's annual drinkfest, the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court, west London. Peter Ballantyne, from Milton Keynes, agreed that beer really could taste of citrus.

"Anything that stops people just downing pints and makes them pay more attention to what they're drinking is good," he said.

Phil Mellows, a pub trade journalist, said the scheme could help real ale to fight back against the mass-produced beers, lagers and alcopops that dominate the market.

The British beer market, including pub and off-licence sales, amounts to about 33 million barrels a year. Real ale accounts for about seven to eight per cent of the total, down from a peak of 17 per cent in 1994.

Mike Benner, Camra's chief executive, said: "Beer is our national drink. It is ridiculous that people think you have got to have a glass of wine when you go to a restaurant.''

Katherine Graham, from Vancouver, Canada works in a gastropub in London where particular ales are suggested for particular dishes. "We recommend Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter for haddock and chips, Fullers 1845 for steak and Schneider Weisse for fish cakes." The day of the beer snob cannot be long away.

What is real ale?

Real ale is the name CAMRA (the CAMpaign for Real Ale) coined for a type of beer defined as “beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide.”

The fundamental distinction between real and other ales is that the yeast is still present and living in the container from which the real ale is served, although it will have settled to the bottom and is usually not poured into the glass. Because the yeast is still alive, a slow process of fermentation continues in the cask or bottle on the way to the consumer, allowing the beer to retain its freshness. Another distinction is that real ale should be served without the aid of added carbon dioxide, or top pressure as it is known.

telegraph.co.uk

Hope your not going to post those 6 other news articles like you did over on CC.

Regiment marks Minden Day by Blackleaf
In The News 0 at 1:51 pm by Blackleaf

Seven wonders made by man. by Blackleaf
History 0 at 1:31 pm by Blackleaf

Chelsea swipe at 'boring Benitez' by Blackleaf
Sports 1 at 12:20 pm by Toro

Be proud of our troops by Blackleaf

Experts discover Bronze Age motorway
2nd August 2006

A vertical timber, part of the Bronze Age motorway, was discovered by contractors working in Suffolk

Experts have been called in to investigate what is believed to be the remains of an ancient motorway, it emerged today.

A trio of university archaeologists were contacted after contractors working in Suffolk unearthed a number of vertical timbers thought to have once supported an ancient wooden causeway.

Experts said excavations at the site of a multi-million pound flood alleviation project for Broadland had revealed the remains of a structure which ran for more than half-a-mile, from dry land on the edge of Beccles Town marshes, across a swamp to a spot on the River Waveney.

The causeway is thought to date from the Bronze Age and remained in use through the Iron Age, into Roman times until at least the 4th Century AD.

Equivalent of a motorway

At 5m wide, experts said it was capable of carrying carts and was the Bronze Age equivalent of a motorway.

Dr Henry Chapman, one of the three-strong University of Birmingham team called in to help the excavation, described the discovery as extremely rare.

He said: "It is certainly a dramatic cultural achievement. The nearest dry land is a long way away. You can put this on a par with any of the big monuments in terms of effort to construct it.

"Decking is the best way I can describe it. You have upright timbers which have flat poles placed on top of them, effectively making the rails underneath the joists. On top of that you have the planks. It is the sort of thing you can have carts on.

"It is extremely rare, there is nothing like it. You have got a causeway which has been used for a tremendous amount of time, which is unique. It has been added to over time to preserve it, which shows its importance to early Beccles."

dailymail.co.uk

Very interesting! Good find!

The Times August 03, 2006

Bath hopes its spa will ease painful memories
By Simon de Bruxelles

The £45 million attraction is finally ready after years of bitter wrangling. Our correspondent dips into the relaxing waters

The spas in the city of Bath, Avon, were built by the Romans so the wealthy could bathe in the health-giving properties of the only naturally occurring hot springs in Britain. They were enjoyed up until the Georgian period when people discovered that the waters may have turned poisonous. This week, they have reopened once again to the public after being refurbished. Many of Bath's restaurants serve the hot mineral water from the spas as a drink - it's healthy but apparently doesn't taste very nice.

BUBBLES are rising in the pools, the space-age steam room is shimmering and the ancient, honey-coloured walls surrounding the Hot Bath make it look like a whirlpool designed for a Harry Potter film.

Despite the conjunction of ancient and modern, it is easy to imagine Romans or Georgians taking their ease at Britain’s only naturally occurring hot spring.

Three years to the day since the Three Tenors prematurely serenaded its opening, and at least 300 per cent over budget, the Thermae Bath Spa is ready for its first paying guests. The doors open on Monday, when the taxpayers of Bath will finally find out how more than £30 million of their council tax has been spent.

The Royal Crescent

Bath is one of Britain's most historic cities, with many Roman statues.

The new spa is an altogether more discreet affair than the original Roman baths 100 yards away, tucked away as it is in a side street. The entrance in a restored Georgian building looks more like that to a minimalist hotel than the showcase of a £45 million enterprise. A short flight of steps leads to the changing area, where visitors don bathrobes and rubber slippers.

The first stop for most will be the roof, where bathers can enjoy a 360-degree view of the rooftops of one of the most beautiful cities in Britain. The costly rows over waterproof paint that was not, windows that delaminated and floors that leaked are soon forgotten.

The water is maintained at a coddling 35C (95F), ten degrees cooler than it emerges from the ground: this is a pool for relaxing in, not swimming. The waters contain 42 minerals, said by the Ancients to have medicinal properties.

Peter Rollins, the marketing manager, said: “Because of the temperature and the minerals in the water you’d feel pretty knackered if you tried swimming about.”

The rooftop pool is one of four in the complex. The Hot Bath is where much of the water-based therapy takes place, such as Watsu massage. The larger Minerva pool in the basement looks not dissimilar to pools in leisure centres, except for the absence of flumes and a strict “no cannonballs” rule.

The inventive list of treatments includes the Alpine Hay Bath (£38 ), the Chardonnay Bath (£38 ), the Aromatic Moor Mud Wrap (£45) and something called the Litho-Cal Seaweed Peel (£40).

The spring that bubbles to the surface in the Cross Bath was a sacred site for the Celts even before the arrival of the Romans. Bath residents will be able to worship the water gods there at the reduced rate of £6, instead of £12.

For those who want to sample the Spa proper, tickets start at £19 for a two-hour session, but most of the 2,000 people who have booked their visit also want to experience one of the therapies on offer.

A man called Brian was my introduction to the exotic world of Thai massage. Having changed into Thai fisherman’s trousers and a T-shirt, I lay down on a fleece-covered mattress and waited nervously for Brian to do his worst.

It was not as bad as I had feared as he manipulated my arms and legs into various unlikely positions. Having stretched the front, he rolled me over and stood on my back, using his toes to massage muscles that I did not know I had.

My wife, more of an expert in these things, tried the Pantai Luar massage, which involved being drenched in aromatic oils then pummelled with two large “dumplings” filled with lime and coconut. The full 50-minute treatment cost £55 — “a bargain”.

She was less impressed with other aspects of the spa. “The loos were not only not next door to the changing rooms, they were on an entirely different floor,” she said.

Her verdict was that the spa will prove a huge hit with visitors to Bath, but possibly not with residents.

thetimesonline.co.uk
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Bath

Bath is a city in South West England most famous for its baths fed by three hot springs. It is situated 96.8 miles (155.8 km) west of Charing Cross in London. It is also called Bath Spa.

The city was first documented as a Roman spa, although tradition suggests that it was founded earlier. The waters from its spring were believed to be a cure for many afflictions. From Elizabethan to Georgian times it was a resort city for the wealthy. As a result of its popularity during the latter period, the city contains many fine examples of Georgian architecture, most notably the Royal Crescent. The city has a population of over 80,000 and is a World Heritage Site.

The archaeological evidence shows that the site of the main spring was treated as a shrine by the Celts, and dedicated to the goddess Sulis. The Romans probably occupied Bath shortly after their invasion of Britain in 43 AD. They knew it as Aquae Sulis (literally "the waters of Sulis"), identifying the goddess with Minerva. In Roman times the worship of Sulis continued and messages to her scratched onto metal have been recovered from the Sacred Spring by archaeologists. These are known as curse tablets. These curse tablets were written in Latin, and usually laid curses on other people, whom they feel had done them wrong. For Example, if a citizen had his clothes stolen at the Baths, he would write a curse on a tablet, to be read by the Goddess Sulis, and also, the "suspected" names would be mentioned. The corpus from Bath is the most important found in Britain.

During the Roman period, increasingly grand temples and bathing complexes were built in the area, including the Great Bath. Rediscovered gradually from the 18th century onward, they have become one of the city's main attractions. The city was given defensive walls, probably in the 3rd century. From the later 4th century on, the Western Roman Empire and its urban life declined. However, while the great suite of baths at Bath fell into disrepair, some use of the hot springs continued.

wikipedia.org

Times Online August 03, 2006

Abul Kahar Kalam, right, during a press conference about the police raid in Forest Gate (Richard Pohle/The Times)

Terror raid victim arrested on child porn charges
By Adam Fresco and agencies

A man shot by police during a controversial anti-terror raid in Forest Gate has been arrested on suspicion of possession and making of child abuse images.

Abul Kahar Kalam was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Command after attending a London police station by appointment. It is understood that they examined a computer passed to them after the armed raid in June in east London, by police acting on intelligence of a chemical bomb plot.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Following advice from the CPS, a man in his 20s has been arrested today by officers from the Met’s Child Abuse Investigation Command. The man, who attended a London police station by appointment, has been arrested on suspicion of possession and making of child abuse images. He remains in custody.

"His arrest relates to an investigation by detectives from the Child Abuse Investigation Command after property was passed to them for examination."

Earlier today a report by the Independent Police Complaints Authority cleared the armed police officer who shot Mr Kahar of any wrong doing and said the shooting was an accident.

The IPCC report said that during the raid in June the gun went off as a result of contact on a narrow staircase between the police officer and Mr Kahar. He was shot in the shoulder but there was "no evidence of intent or recklessness", the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found.

Armed police, acting on intelligence, raided the house looking for evidence of a chemical bomb. No such device was ever found. The operation, codenamed Volga, involved 250 officers, who raided two neighbouring properties in Forest Gate, east London.

Mr Kahar was woken up early in the morning by armed police bursting into his home. He said he was about three feet away from one officer when he saw an orange flash and was shot, but the IPCC said that he was probably much nearer than that.

"He did not hear them speaking or realise they were police officers and says that he believed it was a robbery," said the report.

Deborah Glass, the IPCC Commissioner, attached no blame to Mr Kahar for putting forward a version of events which was not backed by the forensics. Her report said: "From the equipment and respirators worn by the officers it is not surprising that he did not recognise them in the dark to be police officers.

"This must have been a very frightening situation, which would also have been very shocking. The incident also happened very quickly, and these factors are likely to have a bearing on his recollection of events."

The armed officer, known as B6, told investigators that as he climbed the stairs he was shouting the words "armed police", but his voice was probably muffled by his respirator, said the commissioner.

Ms Glass said that having looked at all the circumstances she concluded that the officer had committed no criminal or disciplinary offence. There was "no evidence" of intent or recklessness on the part of the firearms officer. There was also no evidence to support a media report that the gun was fired by one of the brothers, the IPCC’s report concluded.

Its conclusions were based on the findings of an independent forensic scientist.

Ms Glass said that the investigation would not be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for consideration on criminal charges, because although the injury to Mr Kahar was serious enough to fall under the definition of grievous bodily harm, there was no evidence of intent. There was also no scope for a prosecution under health and safety laws.

The forensic scientist found no fingerprints on the trigger of the weapon - but also concluded that the only way for the weapon to have been fired was for the trigger to be pulled. The weapon with which Mr Kahar was shot - a Heckler and Koch MP5 carbine - had its safety catch off, in accordance with police training for a "high-risk entry", the report added.

Although the report is not explicit, this suggests that the police officer, who was wearing two pairs of gloves as part of a chemical biological radiological nuclear (CBRN) suit, fired the gun accidentally.

The IPCC document said the forensic examination found evidence that the officer and Mr Kahar were "much less" further apart than the three feet described by Mr Kahar.

B6 said that as he was on a half-landing in the property he collided with two figures "approaching from his right at speed" and this caused him to lose his balance and crash into the wall. "B6 says that he was aware of person(s) pulling at his right arm. He states that he feared that the person(s) were trying to take his weapon, and that he feared for his life."

Scotland Yard has apologised for the "hurt" caused to Mr Kahar and his brother, Abul Koyair Kalam, 20, during the raid on their home in east London in June. The two men were released after a week-long search failed to produce any evidence. Their home was ripped apart by the search, and since then the family have been living in hotels, at a reported cost of around £30,000 a month to the Metropolitan Police.

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, head of Central Operations and in charge of Firearms teams, criticised the "ill founded, premature and one sided comment made to the media" after the raid.

"Much of this was heavily critical of the MPS and could have damaged public confidence in us. We have always maintained that there were two sides to this story and today's announcement and findings by the IPCC knocks down many of the inaccurate and misleading statements that were previously made," he said.

"In this case an independent forensic scientist has concluded that the weapon was within two inches of Abul Kahar when discharged and was not in a normal firing position. The IPCC has concluded there was no evidence that it was a deliberate act by the officer, or indeed no evidence of intent or recklessness. The report states that the officer has committed no criminal or disciplinary offences.

"We welcome these findings but recognise the impact that this incident has had on the local community and regret what was an accidental discharge that resulted in someone being injured.

"The IPCC's independence and the transparency that this report brings are vital for Londoners to continue to have confidence in the police that serve them and the bodies that hold us accountable. Any lessons to learn as a result of this IPCC investigation will be fully and properly considered."

thetimesonline.co.uk