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British military policeman killed in Afghanistan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Dec 21, IRNA -- A British soldier from the Royal Military Police has been killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced Monday.

The military policeman, who has yet to be named, was said to have been killed as the result of small arms fire in the Sangin area of central Helmand on Sunday.

The latest death brings the total number of UK troops to have been killed in Afghanistan to 104 so far this year and 241 since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001.

The news came as the MoD announced a new camouflage uniform was being issued to help British troops blend into Afghanistan's varied terrain.

The Multi-Terrain Pattern uniform is the first time British Armed Forces changed the camouflage pattern since 1969 and follows computer modelling of the Afghanistan environment.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the new camouflage will help British troops blend into different environments in Helmand Province to stay hidden from the Taliban.

"Patrols take our troops through the Green Zone, scrubland, desert and arid stony environments and it is crucial that the camouflage can work across all of them,” Ainsworth said.

He said his government was striving to provide British soldiers with the “very best personal kit and equipment” and that the new uniform was just the latest example.

The new uniforms will be first issued to troops from 4 Mechanized Brigade when they are deploy in Afghanistan in March 2010. It will then be introduced across all three services from 2011.

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End News / IRNA / News Code 855943