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Army pledges to 'get on with job'
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Senior Army officers have pledged to "get on with the job" after four soldiers killed in one of the bloodiest days for UK forces in Afghanistan were named.
The men died in three separate incidents in Helmand province on Thursday - taking the death toll since operations began in 2001 to 157.
Tributes were paid to the dead soldiers as their commanding officers pledged to fight on - and their fellow soldiers returned to action.
In one incident, Sergeant Ben Ross, 34, from 173 Provost Company, 3rd Regiment, Royal Military Police, and Corporal Kumar Pun, 31, from the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, were killed by a suicide bomber during a patrol in Gereshk.
Defence Secretary John Hutton said the men "died at the spearhead of operations fundamental to the UK's mission in Afghanistan" and praised their dedication, professionalism and fierce bravery.
In a separate incident, Rifleman Adrian Sheldon, 25, from 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was killed when his Jackal patrol vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device near Sangin.
And Corporal Sean Binnie, 22, from the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, died in a fire fight with insurgents near Musa Qala.
Major Adam Quantrell, Sgt Ross's commanding officer in 173 Provost Company, said his death came as a "huge shock" and added: "The hole that has been left by him appears at the moment to be overwhelming. I know if Ben were still here he would just look at me, tell me to fill the hole and get on with the job.
"He was a giant among men and I am blessed for having him under command and the company is blessed for having served with him."
Actress Joanna Lumley, who is leading a high-profile campaign over Gurkha residence rights, said Cpl Kumar's death showed the Gurkhas were giving up their lives for Britain and deserved the right to settle in the UK. Cpl Kumar, the son of a British Gurkha, was leading a 15-man team on his first deployment to Afghanistan after operations in Kosovo and Bosnia.
Reader views (2)
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, 09/05/2009 15:42
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For how much longer must families like mine suffer this hell... and now there are another four families whose lives are destroyed forever - and for what?? I'd also like to ask why that 'matchbox' truck, that the army call a Jackal patrol vehicle didn't have the safety mechanism to activate when it hit an IED?? Shame on the government!!
- Maureen Cohen, London, 09/05/2009 04:51
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