ALISON CAMPSIE
Musa Qala, Afghanistan

A Scots soldier's life was saved by his helmet when it deflected a Taliban bullet during a fierce firefight in Helmand.

Private David Poderis, 37, a TA soldier and lorry driver from Wishaw, was lying on the roof of a compound when he was shot in the head. His helmet absorbed the strike, with Pte Poderis fighting on and only realising the attempt on his life when he returned to camp yesterday morning.

He said: "I felt my head jarring, and the bracket that held my night-sight swung down in front of my face. But it was only when I got back that I knew I had been hit."

The soldier was part of an 80-strong group from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who encountered the insurgents while on a 48-hour foot patrol near the town of Musa Qala.

Meanwhile, a former Taliban warlord, now trying to secure peace in Afghanistan, told The Herald yesterday why he had switched sides in the conflict.

Abdul Mullah Salaam Mujahid, now governor of Musa Qala, sought to distance himself from the Talibs."I thought they the Taliban would be good people to make our Afghanistan better. But they are a lot of the groups who have destroyed our country," he said. "They were killing the people and doing every bad things. That was the reason that I joined this government."