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British PM's Afghanistan warning as death toll surpasses Iraq
(AFP)
LONDON (AFP) – .
Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Friday of a "very hard summer" in Afghanistan after eight soldiers were killed within 24 hours, taking the British military death toll higher than in Iraq..
The spike in fatalities mean Britain has now lost 184 troops in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 -- surpassing the 179 killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003..
Speaking at the Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, central Italy as the death toll reached 15 within 10 days, Brown said it was vital the international community maintained its commitment to bring stability to Afghanistan..
Britain's death toll has increased sharply since its forces launched a major airborne assault, codenamed Operation Panther's Claw, three weeks ago against a Taliban stronghold near Gereshk in the strife-torn southern Helmand province..
Attacks by extremists have also been rising ahead of elections in Afghanistan next month..
Brown sent his condolences to the families of the dead soldiers, but said Britain and its allies in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force must stick to their mission..
"This is a very hard summer, it's not over but it's vital that the international community sees through its commitment," Brown said..
"There's a recognition that this is a task that the world has got to accept together.".
Britain's "resolution to complete the work that we have started in Afghanistan and Pakistan is undiminished," Brown added..
In the latest deaths to hit the 8,300 British troops in the country, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said five soldiers from The 2nd Battalion The Rifles were killed Friday in two separate explosions while on the same patrol near Sangin in the troubled southern Helmand Province..
Meanwhile a soldier from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment was killed in an explosion near Nad Ali in central Helmand..
It was announced earlier Friday that a soldier from the 4th Battalion The Rifles was killed Thursday in a "contact explosion" while on a foot patrol in Helmand..
The MoD also announced that a soldier from the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment attached to 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died Thursday in a gun battle with insurgents near Lashkar Gah in Helmand..
The attack in which five soldiers died was one of the worst single incidents in terms of British casualties since the start of operations in Afghanistan..
Four soldiers were killed in a blast in June 2008, and 14 people died in the Nimrod aircraft crash in 2006..
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "These fine British soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice and their memory will live with us forever.... We know that their deaths were not in vain.".
The human cost of the operation was underlined when the bodies of five soldiers were flown home to Britain on Friday. Four were killed while taking part in Panther's Claw and one of the dead, Private Robbie Laws, was just 18..
The men killed since the start of July also include the highest-ranking British soldier to die in action since the 1982 Falklands War, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe..
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said of the British soldiers serving in Afghanistan: "They know that they have to take risks, they take that risk on our behalf, they've been making progress..
"Sadly we've had some people killed, some brave people and we must never forget them," he told ITV television..
In an unusual breach of the cross-party consensus on the conflict, Nick Clegg, the leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, warned this week that soldiers' lives were being "thrown away" in Afghanistan..
Clegg said politicians were setting the troops impossible goals.
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