London, Jan 4, IRNA – A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while on foot patrol in Helmand province in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The death in the Nad-e Ali area on Sunday is the first to be confirmed in 2010 and brings the total number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan to 246 since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the US military announced that four American soldiers were also killed in a separate roadside bomb explosion on Sunday.
Nato-led forces suffered record casualties in Afghanistan last year, including the deaths of 107 British troops, more than double the number killed in 2008. The overwhelming majority have been the result of improvised explosive devices.
Official figures also show that the number of British soldiers casualties seriously and very seriously injured in the first 11 months of 2009 increased to 153, almost equal to the combined total of 159 in the previous three years.