Shropshire soldier cheats death in Afghan attack

A Shropshire soldier cheated death when a rogue Afghan soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade into his tent, during an attack in Helmand Province, his family revealed today.

Bombardier Christopher Ellis, of Telford, was wounded in the attack by the rebel soldier he had been helping to train and was lucky to be alive, they said.

Three servicemen died and three others were also injured.

The 34-year-old, who is in the 4th Regiment Royal Artillery and whose parents, Patricia and Geoff, live in Leegomery, is being treated at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.

His wife, Carley, 24, today told how he had managed to grab some kit after being woken up by a commotion and gunfire outside in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand province in Afghanistan on July 13.

She said: "The RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) was fired into the tent and blew them across the tent.

"They lost everything they have got, no kit or personal belongings."

Mrs Ellis was visiting a friend when she received the news.

She said: "I got a phone call from my friend saying welfare were trying to contact me for some reason which they couldn't tell me over the phone.

"I started panicking and even though I didn't know what had happened you still worry. I had seen it on the news that three had been killed and four had been injured and it said the families were still being informed."

Bombardier Ellis was back in the UK on Tuesday night but has still not been able to get out of his hospital bed.

Mrs Ellis, who has sons Josh, one, and Reece, four, said she was hoping he could come out of hospital next week.