The British Army has met with anger from black Twitter users after claiming that Black History Month has expanded to include Asians.

After posting a Tweet about its #blackhistorymonth campaign, the Army’s official account added: ‘We missed a trick here, we didn’t explain that #blackhistorymonth has expanded to include the history of Asian people and their contributions too.

‘Hence our recognition of our historic partnership with the Indian Army which also features our BAME Champion @UrchTyrone @adgpi.’

The now deleted post prompted an angry reaction from black Twitter users.

@AaronMHunte tweeted: “Don’t do this again. EVER!! Black History Month is for Black History. You have no right to ‘expand’ it.”

 @SOCIALLYCRUSHED wrote: “It’s called Black History Month not black and others month. There are 11 other months that you can use. This is just insulting to the Black people that this country is forever trying to erase from History.”

@Whittz added: “Evidently the British think “Black” and “BAME” are the same. @BritishArmy tweeted “we’ve expanded Black History month to include Asians” and I’m honestly wondering who signed this off.”

Another user, Bollywood Qing, attacked the move tweeting: “Asians have not asked to be included. If need be, there should be a separate #BrownHistoryMonth.”

And a further critic added: “The British Army celebrating black history month with some good old ‘you’re all the same if you ain’t white racism”‘.

However in a statement given to indy100, an army spokesperson said: 

“We regret the offence caused by the tweet yesterday. Throughout October we are celebrating Black History Month, including highlighting the crucial role black soldiers have played serving in and with the British Army.  

“Like many organisations and media outlets, our content also featured historical links with persons from Asian backgrounds.”