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Ministers have again been accused of putting British forces in Afghanistan at risk through penny-pinching as another two soldiers were killed, taking the death toll to nine in nine days.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged it was a "very hard summer" for the troops but insisted the Government's resolution to seeing through the mission was "undiminished".
The Ministry of Defence announced that two soldiers - one from 4th Battalion The Rifles and the other from Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment attached to 1st Battalion Welsh Guards - died in separate incidents in Helmand Province on Thursday.
The second serviceman was taking part in Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, a major British assault against the Taliban in Helmand ahead of next month's Afghan elections. Some 3,000 troops are involved in the operation, which began on June 19 and has seen fierce fighting and significant casualties on both sides.
Task Force Helmand spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson said: "These fine British soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice and their memory will live with us forever. We mourn their loss and our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends at this very sad time. We know that their deaths were not in vain."
The soldiers' families have been informed.
The grim news came as the bodies of another five British servicemen killed in Afghanistan over the past week - four in Operation Panchai Palang - were returned to the UK.
A total of 178 British troops have died in the troubled country since the start of operations in October 2001, just one short of the total death toll in the Iraq war.
Meanwhile, a former head of the Armed Forces has accused the Government of putting UK forces at risk and spending the "minimum they could get away with" on defence.
General Lord Guthrie, chief of the defence staff from 1997 to 2001, said commanders on the ground were struggling with too few troops. He told the Daily Mail: "I spoke to an officer the other day who said that the Treasury had affected the operational safety of our soldiers, by preventing an uplift in our numbers."
Reader views (1)
Very sad. Every day there is similar report. NO one knows how more tomorrow. Last 8 years the war is going on but no end. Fooling the countrymen and killing innocent peoples.
- Chishty, London, 10/07/2009 12:12
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