KABUL, Feb 19: Two British paratroopers have been sent home amid an inquiry into the death of an Afghan man shot after an alleged attack on British troops, officials said on Tuesday.

“Two of the soldiers are now back in the UK. This is entirely normal procedure and in no way prejudges the outcome of any investigation,” said Captain Graham Dunlop, a press officer with the British-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Six soldiers from the 2nd Parachute Battalion were involved in the shooting incident Saturday morning, in which they said they were responding to an attack on one of their outposts in Kabul.

The family of the dead man, Hamayon Yaqobi, 19, said on Monday he was a civilian trying to rush his sister-in-law to hospital to give birth around 2am when ISAF troops opened fire unprovoked.

The ISAF is investigating the incident but on Monday reiterated the British troops’ version of events, that they returned fire after coming under attack.

Hamayon’s uncle, Nasrullah Yaqobi, has meanwhile demanded compensation from ISAF, saying his nephew died instantly from a bullet wound to the head.

ISAF chief of staff Colonel Richard Barrons said Saturday the British soldiers returned fire after their post came under attack before dawn, adding the gunmen fled in a car.

At first light, a car was discovered in the vicinity riddled with bullets and one man was found dead and five others injured in a nearby house. The injured did not suffer bullet wounds, he said.

Barrons called the incident the first attack on ISAF soldiers since they began deploying here in December following the collapse of the Taliban regime.

Meanwhile, a US general was leading a 15-member team in Kabul to assess what is needed to organize, train and equip a national army to end the rule of warlords who reign across much of the country.

US Major General Charles Campbell was in Kabul for talks with Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim and other members of the interim government to try to achieve a consensus on a national army, a spokesman for the US Central Command said Monday.

“The discussions will address force structure, manning, equipment, training and infrastructure,” said Navy Commander Frank Merriman, a spokesman for the command in Tampa, Florida.

He said Campbell would draw up recommendations and report them to Army General Tommy Franks, the commander-in-chief of the US Central Command, who requested the assessment.

Britain has also offered to help Afghanistan build a professional army to replace the warlords.

The multinational ISAF is confined to Kabul but interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai wants foreign troops deployed to all of Afghanistan’s major centres to boost security.

The ISAF will reach some 4,000 troops with the arrival of a contingent of Greek soldiers Tuesday, a press officer said.

Karzai’s view was echoed Tuesday by an Afghan diplomat who said the force should be increased to at least 30,000 soldiers.

Afghanistan needs ISAF soldiers in its six biggest cities, rather just Kabul, the charge d’affaires at the Paris embassy, Murabudin Mastan, told Radio France Internationale.

The fragility of the interim administration was underscored last week by the killing of its aviation minister, allegedly the victim of a plot by other senior government officials.

An Afghan official on Monday said Saudi Arabia had arrested and would extradite two fugitive Afghan officials accused of assassinating aviation and tourism minister Abdul Rahman.

“Two of them have been arrested in Saudi Arabia and maybe tomorrow they will be sent to Afghanistan,” Afghan Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni said.—AFP