Afghan accuser's tie to Brit soldier case

AN AFGHAN man who accused UK special forces of killing civilians in Helmand is related to a Taliban commander involved in the torture and execution of a British soldier, it emerged last night.

- By Marco Giannangeli

Habibullah “Abdul” Alizai appeared on the BBC’s Panorama programme earlier this year, alleging UK forces killed nine innocent civilians in southern Afghanistan.

What he did not reveal - and what the programme-makers seemingly missed - was his family’s direct involvement in the abduction and murder of 20-year-old Scott McLaren, a British soldier captured by insurgents during the UK’s decade-long deployment to Helmand.

Highlander McLaren, from Edinburgh, was serving with the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, when he went missing on July 4, 2011.

He had reportedly left his base in Nahr-e-Saraj in an attempt to recover a pair of night-vision goggles, which he had left at a checkpoint two days earlier.