British deaths in Afghanistan double in 15 months
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Dec 29, IRNA -- A British soldier has been killed in the Kajaki area of Helmand province brining the total number of UK fatalities to 244 since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The latest victim, who has yet to be named, died in an explosion while on patrol on Monday. It comes after three British soldiers were killed in the Sangin region of central Helmand last week.
The British death is the ninth this month and comes at a time of record casualties with the number fatalities doubling the total in the last 15 months, including 107 suffered so far this year, more than twice the 51 killed in 2008.
The number of British casualties seriously and very seriously injured in the first 11 months of 2009 has risen to 153, almost equal to the combined total of 159 in the previous three years.
The number of aeromedical evacuations of British troops up until the end of November was 1,215, over 50 per cent more than in 2008. There were 1,128 admissions to field hospitals during the same period, including 464 wounded in action.
Casualty figures have shown that British troops have been suffering proportionately higher death rates than their American counterparts in Afghanistan this year.
While the US has suffered just over 300 losses, around three times the British number, the Americans have some 58,000 troops in the country, around six times the number deployed by the UK.
Earlier this month, the British government announced defence cuts to help fund military resources for Afghanistan. The widespread cutbacks represent the first time in modern history that the defence budget has been raided to help pay for a war operation.
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End News / IRNA / News Code 866590
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