By ANTARA News
Kabul : Two British Marines and a Danish soldier were killed in Afghanistan, officials said Monday, days before a NATO summit is to hear appeals for more forces to fight Taliban extremists.
The troops were slain in the southern province of Helmand, a region caught in the throes of the Taliban-led insurgency and the centre of Afghanistan’s massive drugs trade — a source of funding for the rebels.
The Danish soldier was killed and two other Danes were injured Monday in heavy battles also involving British troops against Taliban fighters near the town of Gereshk, the Danish military said.
Helicopter gunships were called in to the fighting, which also involved tanks, heavy artillery and mortars, it said.
The British Marines were killed when an explosion blew up their vehicle on Sunday during a routine patrol, British Lieutenant Colonel Simon Millar told AFP.
The blast, whose cause has not been determined, was near the remote Kajaki Dam, a vital water and power source for Helmand which the British military has held since the Taliban were driven out nearly two years ago.
Most of the 7,500 British soldiers who are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed across Afghanistan are in Helmand, where there are also about 500 Danish troops.
The latest death takes to 36 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year. Nearly 220 died last year, most of them in hostile action.