Two more British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan over the weekend, taking the country's military death toll past the 200 mark and sparking renewed debate about whether the mission there is worth the human cost.
Ten British troops have been killed so far this month, and 22 died in July, Britain's bloodiest month since the invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the "professionalism and the dedication and courage" of the British troops and said it is to them that Britain owes "the greatest debt".
"I want to say that the whole nation supports what their families have been able to do for our country," Brown said.
The Ministry of Defence said a soldier from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was injured in an explosion during a foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand province on Saturday.
He later died.
The soldier is the 201st British military fatality in Afghanistan.
Another soldier, from 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh, died earlier Saturday at a military hospital in England.
He had been wounded in a blast while on vehicle patrol Thursday in Helmand province.
Officials said both soldiers' families have been informed.
Britain has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, most based in Helmand, a centre of Taliban insurgents, and casualties have been rising steadily in the past year.
The rising toll - more than the 179 personnel who died in Iraq - has re-ignited a debate in Britain about its role in the war and the quality of its military equipment.
The Afghan campaign has long been divisive, with polls showing Britons about evenly split between supporters and opponents of the mission.
Brown said British troops were helping make Afghanistan safe ahead of important presidential elections next week.
But many in Britain are asking whether the mission's goal of a stable Afghanistan is achievable.
Some also doubt whether British troops have the right equipment for the job.
Former military commanders and opposition politicians have called for more helicopters to reduce deaths from roadside bombs, the top killer of British troops in the country.
Tony Philippson, whose son Jim was killed in Afghanistan in 2007, said the loss of life could have been avoided if troops had been provided with proper equipment.
"It's very sad," he said, speaking of the deaths.
"It's even sadder because a considerable part of those numbers, those that have been lost, those deaths were avoidable, as we know, because of lack of proper equipment, particularly helicopters."
Meanwhile, a British soldier based in Helmand spoke about how troops dealt with the death of a colleague during an interview by British Broadcaster Sky News.
Sergeant Scott Roxborough of the Mercian Regiment, a member of the soldiers' mentoring team said that when a death occurred, troops had to deal with it "in their own way".
"If somebody is dealing with it in a bad way, me and the platoon commander, Captain Brown, will speak to him and ensure they're all right, you know, but generally the soldiers deal with it in the best possible manner that they can," Roxborough said in the Sky report.
Afghans are due to vote Thursday in presidential elections, seen by the international community as a key marker of the country's progress toward becoming a stable democracy.
Militants have staged a series of attacks in the run-up to the vote, including a suicide car bombing Saturday near NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) headquarters in Kabul that killed seven people and wounded nearly 100.
Brown said the government had increased resources in Afghanistan to deal with "this new kind of threat, which is the roadside bomb, the electronic devices, the guerrilla warfare being practiced by the Taliban."
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So it's ALL men who get killed?
Andybaby 1 year ago