Inquest into deaths of corporals

Corporal David O'Connor and Corporal Channing Day Credit: MOD

An inquest into the deaths of two British service personnel who died in a suspected "green-on-blue" attack in Afghanistan will begin today.

Cpl Channing Day, 25, of 3 Medical Regiment and Cpl David O'Connor, 27, of 40 Commando were killed on October 24 last year by a man believed to be an off-duty policeman in Helmand's Nahr-e Saraj district.

They had been overseeing the training of Afghan local police when their patrol came under fire near the village of Char Kutsa.

Cpl Day, the third British servicewoman to be killed in Afghanistan, was deployed to the country one month before the attack, and was based at Patrol Base One in the Nahr-e Saraj district, where she provided medical support to 40 Commando Royal Marines.

She was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, and grew up in Newtownards, Co Down, before joining the Army in 2005.

Cpl O'Connor was deployed to Afghanistan at the end of September last year, as a section commander in the acting rank of corporal.

He lived with his mother Rosemary in Havant, Hampshire.

The inquest, which is expected to last two days, will be heard in Oxford.