Three British soldiers died and eight others were seriously injured as the result of separate incidents in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence in London said.
A spokesman for the MoD told AFP that one soldier was killed, and five others were very seriously injured by a landmine in the southern province of Helmand at 12:20 pm (0750 GMT). Another soldier was less seriously injured.
In a separate incident in the same northern part of Helmand at around 8:00 am, another soldier was killed "in a contact with insurgent forces" while another soldier was seriously injured and three others received minor wounds.
The third soldier, a member of the First Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, died as a result of wounds suffered from an attack on Friday.
The ministry said that in another clash with local insurgents, also in northern Helmand, one soldier was "very seriously wounded" and another suffered serious injuries.
The deaths bring to 40 the number of British military dead in Afghanistan since 2001. Fourteen British armed service personnel were killed when their Nimrod reconnaissance plane crashed on Saturday. A British soldier was also killed with four Afghans in a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul on Monday.
The MoD spokesman said the injured were being treated at the military medical facility at the British Camp Bastion base. Further details were being withheld until the soldiers' families have been informed, he added.
The soldiers, all part of a NATO contingent in Afghanistan, were conducting a routine International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrol when they strayed into an unmarked minefield, the force said earlier Wednesday in Kabul.
Britain has the bulk of its deployment of around 4,500 troops to Afghanistan in Helmand, the ISAF said in a statement.
AFP
Publication time: 7 September 2006, 01:29
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