By IRNA,
London : A former police officer from Northern Ireland man was reported Monday to have been killed in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
Ken McGonigle from County Tyrone was working as a police mentor for the New Century civilian security firm when he was said to have been shot by an escaped prisoner in the Musa Qala district on Saturday.
Two US marines are also believed to have been killed in the incident along with the gunman, according to the BBC.
The killing comes after British doctor Karen Woo was shot dead on Friday along with nine colleagues working with a Christian charity providing healthcare in remote villages in the north-east of Afghanistan.
Since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, a total of 327 British forces personnel or Ministry of Defence civilians have also died while serving in Afghanistan. Of these, 288 were killed as a result of hostile action and 39 have died from other causes.
Last month, the Medical Research Council (MRC) reported that the rate at which British troops have been killed has virtually doubled in Afghanistan in the past year and is proportionately far higher than their American counterparts.
The numbers of British troops being killed are well above the threshold for “major combat” operations and now match those suffered by Soviet troops fighting in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the MRC said.