AN inquest heard tributes today to the character, experience and professionalism of an Army dog handler killed in an intense Taliban attack while serving alongside soldiers from the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan.

Lance Corporal Kenneth Rowe, of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, died in a volley of rocket-propelled grenades the day after he was due to return home to Tyneside.

He had stayed on in northern Helmland, near Sangin, because he wanted to take part in a planned operation and was worried about a lack of cover for comrades.

With his sniffer dog Sasha, he joined a patrol to search compounds near their base for enemy weapons, ammunition and explosives, when the group was hit by a surprise attack on July 24 2008.

Lt Col Freddie Kemp of the Parachute Regiment told the inquest at the Riverside Centre, North Shields that L/Cpl Rowe and Sasha were near a low wall when the enemy opened fire just 30m away.

"A rocket-propelled grenade struck the wall near Kenneth and when the smoke cleared it was immediately apparent that Kenneth and Sasha had become casualties," he said.

The 24-year-old from West Moor, near Newcastle, was taken by helicopter to Camp Bastion but could not be saved.

Sasha, a labrador, was also killed.

Full story in tomorrow's Northern Echo