Britain suffers more deaths in Afghanistan
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, June 10, IRNA -- A British soldier has been killed in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense in London announced Wednesday.
The soldier, part of the recently-formed Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (North), was killed in an explosion on Wednesday. No further details were revealed.
The latest death, which coincided with four NATO personnel who got killed in a helicopter crash into the Sangin district bazaar, comes after a British soldier lost his life in a small arms fire when serving as part of Combined Force Nad 'Ali on Tuesday.
Five British soldiers have been killed since the US took over control of some 8,000 UK troops in Helmand province last week as part of a restructuring of the NATO forces.
A total of 294 have lost their lives since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001. more than half as a result of improvished explosive devices and the majority in the last four years.
In London Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron was meeting US General David Petraeus to discuss strategy in Afghanistan. It comes on the heels of a visit by American Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
After meeting Gates on Tuesday, Britain’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox said that the two countries were committed to seeing the war through and “creating a stable enough Afghanistan to manage its own internal and external security."
“We cannot afford Afghanistan to lapse back into a failed state which will create a security vacuum which will contaminate the region and possibly well beyond it,” Fox warned.
When pressed whether British forces would move from Helmand to Kandahar following the arrival of 45,000 American reinforcements, Fox said it was “highly unlikely” and was “not something the UK Government would be proposing.”
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End News / IRNA / News Code 1168773
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