Mother of shot soldier: 'Afghanistan was living hell for my son'.

Byline: Ross Lydall and Peter Dominiczak

THE mother of a soldier killed with four colleagues by a rogue Afghan policeman today reignited the row over a shortage of equipment for British troops.

Regimental Sergeant Major Darren Chant's mother Elizabeth said his wife had to send the London-born Grenadier guardsman a duvet because he was not given adequate bedding to cope with the bitterly cold Afghan nights.

The 59-year-old said: "My son said Afghanistan was a living hell. They need more of everything, more equipment, more troops, more rifles and more clothes and boots which fit properly.

"Gordon Brown is a joke. He should never have been put in power. Darren's wife had to send him a duvet -- bought out of her own pocket -- because it was so cold at night."

Warrant Officer Chant, 40, who was born in Walthamstow, was among the five soldiers killed when an officer named as Gulbuddin opened fire with a machine gun as they drank tea on Tuesday. He was the most senior noncommissioned officer to be killed in Afghanistan, where 230 British military personnel have died since 2001.

The father of three, whose second wife Nausheen, 30, is six months pregnant, was due to be told he was being promoted to captain on the day he died. He had trained princes William and Harry at Sandhurst and was set to return to the military academy on his return from Afghanistan.

Gulbuddin fled after the attack, in a secure compound near Nad Ali in Helmand, and was reportedly welcomed by the Taliban with flowers. British special forces from the SAS and Special Boat Service are hunting him.

The Ministry of Defence is today due to name the soldier from 3rd Battalion The Rifles killed in an explosion near Sangin yesterday. He was the 93rd British fatality in Afghanistan this year. The bodies of the five men, who had been training members of the Afghan police, are expected to be repatriated next Tuesday.

Mrs Chant told the Sun her son had met British-born Nausheen, a nonpractising Muslim whose parents where born in Pakistan, when she was working as a clerk at Sandhurst.

The couple married just three months ago in the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks in London.

Mrs Chant, from Great Yarmouth, said: "Nausheen spent a lot of time in the barracks and believed in what they were doing to help the people of Afghanistan. She backed Darren all the way and believed in the ideals that he fought for."

A royal spokesman today confirmed that the soldier trained princes William and Harry. The spokesman said: "The princes were saddened to hear of the death of Warrant Officer Chant."

WO1 Chant, who joined the Army aged 16, is mentioned by name in the book Bravo Two Zero, by Andy McNab, after pulling troops out of a burning tank during the first Gulf War.

The MoD described him as "carved from the very rock that forms the foundations of a regiment".

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Tragedy: Regimental Sergeant Major Darren Chant and Nausheen on their wedding day