BY IRNA,
London : The Ministry of Defence in London has announced the death of another British soldier in Afghanistan, bringing the total number killed since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001 to 250.
The latest victim, who has yet to be named, died in an explosion while on foot patrol in Sangin, in central Helmand Province, on Friday afternoon.
News of the death comes ahead of next week’s international conference on Afghanistan in London, which was called by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as British and Nato forces were suffering record casualties.
The number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan is just short of the 255 who died in the 1982 war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
Chief of the General Staff General Sir David Richard, while in charge of western forces in Afghanistan in 2006, described the war as the most intense conflict faced by British troops since the 1950-55 Korean war, when 1,074 UK soldiers were killed.
The British death toll in Afghanistan reached to 108 last year, more than double the 51 killed in 2008 and up from the 42 victims in 2007 and 39 in 2006. The overwhelming majority have died as the result of improvised explosive devices used by insurgents.