Soldier killed in Afghanistan blast

It was also reported that the son of a British Army general lost a leg in a blast.

The soldier who died was from the Joint Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group and was killed defusing a bomb while on patrol in central Helmand on Monday afternoon.

A second soldier was injured in the same blast.

The death takes the number of service personnel to be killed in Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001 to 187.

In a separate explosion Captain Harry Parker, 26 - the son of Lieutenant General Sir Nick Parker - suffered multiple injuries as he led a foot patrol of the 4th Battalion The Rifles in Helmand on Saturday, The Sun reported. He is seriously ill in Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, the newspaper said.

News of the two explosions came after the general secretary of Nato acknowledged that the month had been a "tragic period" for the UK and said the troops were part of a Nato team making a "shared sacrifice".

Jaap De Hoop Scheffer said the military alliance could not afford to walk away from the country however dangerous or expensive the campaign became. Speaking to the Chatham House foreign affairs think-tank on Monday night, Mr De Hoop Scheffer - who stands down next week after five years at the helm of Nato - said: "If one reads any national press, you could be forgiven for thinking that your forces were fighting in Afghanistan alone. But they are not. They are part of a team.

"Fourteen nations are fighting in the south of Afghanistan, alongside their British colleagues, along with Afghan forces. Hundreds of Nato soldiers from other countries have also lost their lives - which is a sad, but real, measure of shared sacrifice."

He added: "If we were to walk away, Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban, with devastating effect for the people there - women in particular. Pakistan would suffer the consequences, with all that that implies for international security. Central Asia would see extremism spread. Al Qaida would have a free run again, and their terrorist ambitions are global. This is not conjecture. This is fact. Those who argue otherwise - who say we can defend against terrorism from home - are simply burying their heads in the sand."