It is believed that the needles, used in Helmand province, are contaminated with hepatitis and HIV as the Taliban use increasingly ‘despicable’ tactics.

Protective Kevlar gloves have been issued to all Royal Engineer and Royal Logistic Corps bomb search teams.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army officer, exposed the tactic. ‘Are there no depths to which these people will stoop?’ he told the Sun.

‘This is the definition of a dirty war.’