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Lucky escape from Taliban bullet for soldier

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-21 10:39

LONDON – A British soldier in Afghanistan was dubbed the luckiest man in the military on Monday after a Taliban bullet pierced his helmet -- and he lived to tell the tale.

British soldiers are silhouetted against the sky in Lashkar Gah. A British soldier in Afghanistan was dubbed the luckiest man in the military on Monday after a Taliban bullet pierced his helmet -- and he lived to tell the tale. [Agencies]

Private Leon Wilson, 32, was manning a machine gun during fighting in a village west of Lashkar Gar, southern Afghanistan, on April 10 when he was shot at, the Sun newspaper in London reported.

The AK-47 bullet -- which entered one side of his helmet and came out 10 centimetres (four inches) away -- missed his head by a few millimetres, passing through a forehead pad instead.

"They tell me I'm the luckiest soldier in the army," the reservist, who is an electrician in civilian life, was quoted as saying.

"And looking at the holes in my helmet, they must be right."