10th British soldier killed in Sangin this year
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, March 2, IRNA -- Another British soldier has been killed in the Sangin area of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence in London announced Tuesday.
The latest victim was said to have died as a result of small arms fire when he came under attack at a vehicle checkpoint he was manning with Afghan soldiers.
The British death is the 10th in Sangin region out of a total of 23 so far this year. It comes after a soldier was shot dead while on a foot patrol north-east of Sangin on Monday.
Following a spate of killings in December, the MoD insisted that the situation in Sangin region of central Helmand is “not as bleak as it might first appear.”
MoD spokesman Major General Gordon Messenger said it is “no secret that Sangin is one of the most challenging areas in which British forces currently operate.”
“Sangin was a known tension point when we arrived in Helmand in 2006 and has remained a keenly contested district between us and the Taleban in the intervening years,” Messenger said.
“It sits in a crucible transit location for the insurgency and has for generations been the seat of significant destabilising inter-tribal frictions in Afghan society. It is also the centre of a major narcotics producing area,” he said.
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End News / IRNA / News Code 990836
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