'Expect more deaths' in Afghanistan

Colonel Stuart Tootal, former commander of 3 Para, said it was a "sad inevitability" that there would be more losses in the run-up to Thursday's elections.

He urged the Government to ensure there was a "coherent and properly-resourced strategy" in Afghanistan.

His warning came after tributes were paid to two soldiers and the injured friend they died trying to save as yet more of the 204 British troops killed since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001 were flown home.

Eight people, including Nato staff, were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a convoy near a military base in the capital Kabul. Dozens more were injured. There was no early indication of the casualties' nationality.

After heavy losses in the five-week operation Panther's Claw in June and July British casualties have remained high as attacks intensify ahead of the elections.

Col Tootal told Sky News the war "cannot be a half-hearted affair" and warned that the Government must justify the mission to the public in a way that "makes sense to the people of this country" for it to succeed.

Government ministers insist that, despite the casualties, troops must continue to fight the Taliban. Chancellor Alistair Darling said: "We have got to have a democratically-elected government in Afghanistan that can protect its people, that can ensure that it can get the political change that is necessary, as well as working with other countries to get security, not just for that region, but for the rest of us. What happens in Afghanistan does affect people in this country.

"We have seen that in the past with al Qaida, with terrorist attacks, and we have got to make sure that we see this through and we get the democratic process going in Afghanistan."

Meanwhile, Conservative leader David Cameron said once high-profile elections in Afghanistan are over, the government in Kabul should promise to cut down on corruption and its own ineffectiveness. He told GMTV: "I think that once they (the elections) are finished it is very important that we have a tough compact with the Afghan government about what they are going to do, to cut out the drug dealing, to cut down the corruption, to deal with the ineffectiveness of parts of the Afghan government itself, I think that's very important."