AN IPSWICH politician fighting on the front line in Afghanistan said the end of a remembrance service was marked with gun fire from rebel soldiers.

AN IPSWICH politician fighting on the front line in Afghanistan said the end of a remembrance service was marked with gun fire from rebel soldiers.

Alasdair Ross, Rushmere ward councillor and former sergeant major for the Royal Green Jackets now known as The Rifles based in Northern Ireland, said the service at Sangin was just finishing when arms fire was heard.

The 46-year-old said the previous day Rifleman Adrian Sheldon, three other British soldiers and many local people died when the Taliban launched suicide bomb attacks against the local population, targeting members of the local security forces and British soldiers.

Mr Ross, of Lonsdale Road, Ipswich, said: “The Rifleman stood fast and the services concluded with the end of the service being marked by the bugler, sounding the advance and within minutes Rifleman from A Company were out of the camp to assist the Welsh Guards and local Afghan National Army soldiers who had come under attack from insurgents.”

Mr Ross said parcels from family and the public were arriving for the soldiers. “I was fortunate to receive back copies of the Green'un and was able to pass them onto a fellow Ipswich soldier so he could also read the report of another East Anglian Derby win!” He added.