The SAS commander in Afghanistan has resigned amid fresh controversy over the equipment available to British troops fighting the Taliban, it was revealed today.

Major Sebastian Morley told a UK newspaper he quit in disgust over the deaths of four of his soldiers who were killed when their lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover hit a landmine in Helmand province earlier this year.

Defence sources insisted that his departure was for "purely personal reasons". However, it is understood that he was unhappy at the continued use of the Snatch, despite its obvious vulnerability.

According to The Daily Telegraph, he believed that Corporal Sarah Bryant - the first female soldier to die in Afghanistan - and three male colleagues, the SAS soldiers, Corporal Sean Reeve, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin and Paul Stout, all died needlessly.

In his resignation letter, Major Morley, the commander of D Squadron, 23 SAS, was said to have blamed "chronic under investment" in equipment by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for their deaths.

The paper said that he believed the MoD was guilty of "gross negligence" and that its failure to supply better equipment was "cavalier at best, criminal at worst".

It quoted one soldier who served with Major Morley as saying: "We highlighted this issue saying people are going to die and now they have died,

"Our commanding officer and RSM (Regimental Sergeant Major) tried everything in their power to stop us using Snatch. The point of failure here lies squarely with the MoD. The boys nicknamed Snatch the mobile coffin."

The disclosure comes in a week that the MoD announced that it was spending £700 million on acquiring 700 new armoured vehicles for operations in Afghanistan — acknowledging the dangers faced by troops as they travelled round the country.

However, Defence Secretary John Hutton refused to withdraw the Snatch Land Rover saying that it was regarded as "mission critical" to the operation.

Instead he promised that the Snatch Land Rover would be upgraded into a new, more powerful variant, called the Snatch Vixen, which was able to carry better protection.

The MoD has not officially confirmed Major Morley's departure.

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