Gurkha soldiers who braved Taliban machinegun fire to rescue a wounded colleague have spoken for the first time about their actions.

The soldiers, from B Company of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles, took part in two days of running battles with the Taliban to clear insurgents from an Afghan town.

Rifleman Yubraj Rai was shot as they began clearing a number of mudwalled compounds south of Musa Qala, which has been repeatedly damaged by fighting between British troops and the Taliban.

“We were advancing, clearing compound to compound,” said Rifleman Dhan Gurung. “We had crossed approximately 250 metres of an open field, heading towards the next compound, when the enemy opened fire.”

At first the Gurkhas believed the shooting was aimed at another patrol. Dhan saw Yubraj drop to the ground and thought he was taking cover, so he also dived down. Yubraj did not seem to be moving; then he suddenly cried out and Dhan realised he had been hit.

“I crawled to Yubraj and I tried to calm him down. I concentrated on administering first aid and tried to find the gunshot wound. I gave him some water to drink and poured some on his head.”

Dhan screamed into the radio: “Man down, man down.” Two other Gurkhas, Lance Corporal Gajendra Rai and Rifleman Manju Gurung, who had witnessed the incident, made repeated attempts to reach Yubraj and Dhan under heavy enemy fire.

Eventually they managed to crawl through to where Yubraj was lying and dragged him into a compound which they knew was clear of Taliban, while Dhan gave them covering fire with his own rifle in one hand and Yubraj’s in the other.

“I never noticed the bullets landing around me,” he said. “But I was shocked when I heard from other members of the section and the platoon how close the rounds had been. I thought we would not come back alive.”

What the Gurkhas’ commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Darby described as “an outstanding moment of bravery” was sadly in vain.

Despite the efforts of the medics, 28-year-old Yubraj died shortly after the battle earlier this month.

His family had a tradition of fighting for the British. His uncle was also a Gurkha and he was the main breadwinner for his widowed mother and his sisters in eastern Nepal.

Darby put together the plan to clear the compounds after a meeting with elders from Musa Qala, who told him they were “caught between a ‘rock’ – the Taliban – and a ‘hard place’, which was us”.

It was vital to oust the Taliban so that the Afghans would see that it was the British forces who had brought them peace and allowed them to get on with their lives, Darby said.

As they pushed on through the compounds they encountered “incredibly fierce fighting for an intense six hours”. The Gurkhas climbed on to the roofs of the compounds to geta better position from which to return the Taliban fire.

The operation resulted in the enemy forces suffering losses and being pushed back from the area. Apache helicopter gunships and the 105mm guns of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery bombarded the Taliban positions.

The fighting raged intermittently through the night and into the next day, with the Gurkhas clearing 10 compounds and uncovering caches of roadside bombs and drugs.

Watch footage of gurkhas in action in Afghanistan: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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