Six British soldiers were killed after an explosion hit their armored vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan, the British Ministry of Defence said. It was the biggest loss of life for British forces in the country since a plane crash in 2006.
The soldiers were on patrol in Helmand Province at the time of the blast on Tuesday evening.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the deaths marked a “desperately sad day for our country.”
Helmand has been the deadliest province by far for coalition troops since the Afghan war started more than a decade ago. Most of Britain’s 9,500 soldiers are based there and the province also has thousands of US troops.
The Taliban have fought fiercely for control of Helmand because it accounts for about half of all poppy production in Afghanistan. Poppy is the main ingredient in making opium and has been a significant source of revenue for the militants.
So far this year, 60 NATO troops have been killed in Afghanistan, including 38 from the US and 10 from Britain.
The Helmand deaths are the biggest loss of life for Britain in a single incident in Afghanistan since a Nimrod aircraft crashed in 2006, killing 14 service members. It is also the largest number of casualties in a ground operation for Britain in the country.
The circumstances of the explosion that killed the six British troops were unclear.
“The six soldiers, five from the 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment and one from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s, were on patrol in a Warrior armored fighting vehicle when it was caught in an explosion in the Task Force Helmand area of operations,” said Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Mackenzie, a spokesman for the British Task Force in Helmand. The British defense ministry said the families of the British soldiers have been informed.
Helmand deputy provincial police chief Kamaluddin Sherzai said the incident happened while the troops were on patrol outside Lashkar Gah city. He said they were about 25km east of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.
In related news, nine Afghan police were killed in an insurgent attack that authorities said yesterday was believed to have been facilitated by a fellow officer and suspected Taliban infiltrator.
The rebels broke into the police post and opened fire on nine sleeping officers, killing all of them, local CID chief Gulab Khan said.
“Nine police are dead. There were 10 people in the post, we believe one of the police led the Taliban into the post and while everybody was sleeping they opened fire and killed nine police,” he said.
“The 10th person has disappeared and he’s believed to have gone with the Taliban after the killings,” Khan added.
The Taliban claimed the attack, but gave a different account.
The group’s spokesman, Yusuf Ahmadi, telephoned from an unknown location to say the officers were captured and later executed.
Also yesterday, a roadside bombing wounded seven police and four civilians in the eastern city of Jalalabad, authorities said.
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