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Taliban kill four British soldiers
Robert Mendick08.05.09
Four British soldiers have been killed in action in a single day in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today.
The troops died in three attacks yesterday across Helmand province. Two soldiers on patrol were killed by a suicide bomber yesterday afternoon; a third died when his Jackal patrol vehicle was hit by an explosion a few hours later; the fourth died of a gunshot wound while on patrol with the Afghan National Army.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson said it was a “sad day”. It was the bloodiest 24 hours for British forces in Afghanistan since 25 February, when three soldiers and one Royal Marine died.
The soldiers' families have been informed. One of the victims is expected to be named later today and the other three tomorrow.
Two deaths occurred in Gereshk, where a soldier from the Royal Gurkha Rifles, Third Battalion, and another from Royal Military Police died in a suicide attack.
A soldier, from 2nd Battalion the Rifles, died while patrolling near Sangin in northern Helmand. The fourth serviceman, from the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, died from a gunshot wound near Musa Qala.
It saw the number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 rise to 157.
Reader views (4)
David, Liverpool - consider - what is left sticking up if people stick their heads in the sand? What happens to people in that position?
Wake up and smell the roses. What is happening today is nothing to do with Imperial Britain. It is about harsh reality. It is about the unavoidable need to consider hard cash - and remember, international finances affect your local funding (and if that needs further explanation then you haven't been paying attention to the headlines lately).
- Rogan, Irving
While our Boys die in Afghanistan for nothing, the MP'S fiddle, what a way to run a country.I remember something like this happen in Rome many years ago.
- Stan White, leeds
To avoid this type of self-inflicted wounds would suggest that the people rebel strongly against any government that wish to embark in foolish wars to subdue natives in far away lands.
- David, Liverpool
This is the heritage of Great Britain that is that the lower classes is cannon fodder for the grandeur of the ruling classes and it all started with Sir Francis Drake that was the origin of the English lust for world power by building up a formidable navy as an instrument to force it will upon the people of this world. Subjugating continents and nations required massive cannon fodder over the years but yielded a rich return for the well to do classes. The British countryside is full of mementos to bygone days, all over can be seen remnants of decaying and neglected stately homes curtsey of Indian coolie working for slave wages in India, South Africa or South America. Stayed some 25 years ago in the country manor that had been converted to a hotel and in the folder the hotel announced the house had belonged to a coalminer, and in wintertime when problem to work the coal mine the labour force of 11,000 was employed for garden landscaping. Now with the loss of the empire presume there is no single Englishman that can employ some 11,000 workers to poke in their garden?
What is meant by this comment is that the English public should not accept to e fooled into war either by there own Government or USA but withdraw into peace and tranquillity on their own land.
- David, Liverpool
