• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

100th British soldier killed in Afghanistan this year

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Nov 18, IRNA -- A soldier has been killed in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, becoming the 100th UK fatality in the war this year.

According to the Ministry of Defence in London, the latest victim was shot in an ambush while mentoring an Afghan National Army patrol on Wednesday.

The latest death brings the number of UK servicemen and women to have been killed in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001 to 345, almost double the 179 to have died during the Iraq war.

British casualties in Afghanistan surged after troops were first deployed to Helmand province in 2006. In the first five years of the war only five lost their lives, including three from non-combat causes.
But in 2006, the number of deaths jumped to 39 and up to 42 the following year and to 51 in 2008 before more than doubling to 108 last year.

Earlier this year, the rate of British soldiers being killed in Afghanistan was reported to be proportionately higher than during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.
But since UK troops were redeployed and replaced by American forces at such outposts as Sangin in Helmand province, where almost one third of the fatalities occurred, the number of UK deaths fell back to seven in August, six in September and four last month.

Britain is seeking to start reducing its 10,000 troops in Afghanistan from next year and end combat operations by 2015, putting the emphasis on training the Afghan army to take over responsibility for security, similar to the withdrawal from Iraq.