UK soldier killed in Afghanistan

12 April 2012

A British soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan - the second to die in the troubled country in two days.

The soldier, from 19 Regiment Royal Artillery, was killed at around 9.30am local time when his vehicle was blown up following an exchange of fire.

The Ministry of Defence said four other soldiers were injured.

The clash happened after a patrol left a base in the town of Gareshk in the lawless Helmand province.

They were engaged by small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. After the initial engagement a vehicle exploded and there were five casualties.

The injured were flown to an ISAF medical facility in Camp Bastion and one soldier was pronounced dead on arrival.

The soldier's next of kin have been informed and have requested a period of grace before further details are released, the MoD said.

The death follows that of Captain Sean Dolan from 1st Battalion, The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, who died while on an operation with US and Afghan troops in the north of the province.

The coalition forces engaged a large group of Taliban fighters near the village of Qaleh-e-Gaz, south west of the town of Sangin.

The soldier was injured while attempting to destroy a damaged coalition forces vehicle to deny it to the enemy. He was taken to the military hospital in Camp Bastion but died from his wounds.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in