FreedomFighter
Junior Member
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Britain has announced the deaths of eight more soldiers in Afghanistan, its worst death toll in a 24-hour period.
Five of the soldiers on foot patrol were killed by twin blasts near Sangin in the southern Helmand province on Friday, the highest death toll in a single attack.
Britain has now lost 184 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the US-led invasion in 2001, more than the 179 deaths during its campaign in Iraq that began in 2003.
Fifteen soldiers, including four officers, have been killed in the past 10 days in the fight against Taliban fighters.
The heavy losses threaten to damage British public support for the deployment in Afghanistan.
Britain has raised force levels to around 9,000 from 8,100 to improve security in the run-up to Afghanistan's presidential election, due to be held on August 20.
Dangerous territory
The UK ministry of defence all the latest fatalities occurred in the southern province of Helmand.
On Friday, five soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Rifles were killed by two blasts while on foot patrol near Sangin while a soldier from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment was killed by an explosion during an operation near Nad Ali.
A day earlier, a soldier from the 4th Battalion The Rifles died in an explosion while on foot patrol near Nad Ali, while a soldier from the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment attached to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards was killed by a bullet wound.
Despite the rising troop toll, Jock Stirrup, Britain's chief of defence staff, insisted that British troops were winning in their mission to improve security in Afghanistan.
"But it's going to take time and alas it does involve casualties ... Our people out there know what they are there to do and they know they are succeeding in it," he said.
Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, said there was no question of pulling soldiers out of Afghanistan until the international community had finished its mission there and quelled the threat from the Taliban.
"This is a very hard summer - it's not over," he said at the G8 summit in Italy.
"But it's vital that the international community sees through its commitments."
Brown said Britain's resolve to complete the work in Afghanistan "is undiminished. We must help deliver a free and fair presidential election in Afghanistan".
Deaths in Ghazni
The ongoing wave of violence has not been limited to just Afghanistan's south.
In Ghazni, a central province, four security guards were killed in an attack on Saturday, authorities said.
The guards were killed when a supply convoy they were escorting to a Nato-led base came under rocket attack, Kheyal Baz Sherzai, Ghazni's police chief, told the AFP news agency.
A day earlier, in the same province, 11 fighters were killed in an operation by Afghan and international forces, Mohammad Osman Osmani, the governor, told the AFP.
Separately, the Afghan interior ministry announced that 29 fighters were killed in Uruzgan province in the south on Friday.
"Bodies of eight of the enemy combatants were left on the battleground," the ministry said in a statement.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) helped Afghan police in the operations, it said.
It was impossible to independently verify the reports of these incidents.
Source: Agencies
Britain has announced the deaths of eight more soldiers in Afghanistan, its worst death toll in a 24-hour period.
Five of the soldiers on foot patrol were killed by twin blasts near Sangin in the southern Helmand province on Friday, the highest death toll in a single attack.
Britain has now lost 184 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the US-led invasion in 2001, more than the 179 deaths during its campaign in Iraq that began in 2003.
Fifteen soldiers, including four officers, have been killed in the past 10 days in the fight against Taliban fighters.
The heavy losses threaten to damage British public support for the deployment in Afghanistan.
Britain has raised force levels to around 9,000 from 8,100 to improve security in the run-up to Afghanistan's presidential election, due to be held on August 20.
Dangerous territory
The UK ministry of defence all the latest fatalities occurred in the southern province of Helmand.
On Friday, five soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Rifles were killed by two blasts while on foot patrol near Sangin while a soldier from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment was killed by an explosion during an operation near Nad Ali.
A day earlier, a soldier from the 4th Battalion The Rifles died in an explosion while on foot patrol near Nad Ali, while a soldier from the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment attached to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards was killed by a bullet wound.
Despite the rising troop toll, Jock Stirrup, Britain's chief of defence staff, insisted that British troops were winning in their mission to improve security in Afghanistan.
"But it's going to take time and alas it does involve casualties ... Our people out there know what they are there to do and they know they are succeeding in it," he said.
Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, said there was no question of pulling soldiers out of Afghanistan until the international community had finished its mission there and quelled the threat from the Taliban.
"This is a very hard summer - it's not over," he said at the G8 summit in Italy.
"But it's vital that the international community sees through its commitments."
Brown said Britain's resolve to complete the work in Afghanistan "is undiminished. We must help deliver a free and fair presidential election in Afghanistan".
Deaths in Ghazni
The ongoing wave of violence has not been limited to just Afghanistan's south.
In Ghazni, a central province, four security guards were killed in an attack on Saturday, authorities said.
The guards were killed when a supply convoy they were escorting to a Nato-led base came under rocket attack, Kheyal Baz Sherzai, Ghazni's police chief, told the AFP news agency.
A day earlier, in the same province, 11 fighters were killed in an operation by Afghan and international forces, Mohammad Osman Osmani, the governor, told the AFP.
Separately, the Afghan interior ministry announced that 29 fighters were killed in Uruzgan province in the south on Friday.
"Bodies of eight of the enemy combatants were left on the battleground," the ministry said in a statement.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) helped Afghan police in the operations, it said.
It was impossible to independently verify the reports of these incidents.
Source: Agencies