British Commander In Afghanistan Resigns Over 'Mobile Coffins'

November 1, 2008 12:34 a.m. EST

London, England (AHN) - Another commander of U.K.'s troops in Afghanistan has resigned to protest the British military's delay in replacing soldiers' vehicles with bomb-proof ones.

Major Sebastian Morley, the top officer of a Special Air Service (SAS) reserve unit in Afghanistan, was the fourth officer to quit over the issue. In June, an air brigade commander resigned following last year's resignation of a parachute unit commander and another SAS officer because military leaders insist on using the lightly-armored Snatch Land Rovers nicknamed "mobile coffins."

In his resignation letter, Morley accused the Ministry of Defense of negligence, endangering the lives of British soldiers and causing the death in June of four SAS soldiers, who were blown up when the Snatch they were riding hit a roadside bomb in Helmand province in southwestern Afghanistan. He described the failure of the ministry to buy better equipment as criminal.