Death brings to 187 the number of UK troops killed since US-led invasion began in 2001

A British soldier from a bomb disposal team has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today.

The soldier from the joint force explosive ordnance disposal group was killed yesterday afternoon while on patrol in Helmand province. His death brings to 187 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001.

Britain has increased its troop levels in Afghanistan to about 9,000 soldiers this year to improve security before next month’s presidential election.

Most of the recent British casualties have been caused by roadside bombs. The son of a British army general lost a leg in a blast on Saturday, the Sun newspaper reported. Captain Harry Parker, 26, was seriously ill in Selly Oak hospital, Birmingham, after suffering multiple injuries in the explosion.

His father is Lieutenant General Sir Nick Parker, the army’s third most senior officer who will become deputy commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan in September, the newspaper said.

Capt Parker was injured by a bomb as he led a foot patrol of the 4th Battalion The Rifles in Helmand.

Meanwhile, in eastern Afghanistan, at least eight people were killed when Taliban suicide bombers attacked government buildings in Gardez, the capital of Paktika province. Witnesses said at least five members of the Afghan security forces and three Taliban fighters were killed during gun battles in the town.

Two of the attackers were suicide bombers dressed in traditional female burkas, an Afghan working for a foreign aid agency told Reuters.

A number of government offices were hit in the attacks, the source said. The Taliban have carried out similar attacks recently in Paktika, the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere.

The violence has flared across Afghanistan since thousands of US marines and British troops launched major offensives in the southern Taliban stronghold of Helmand.

The offensives are the first operations under Barack Obama’s new regional strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat the Taliban and its Islamist allies.

The recent fighting has led to a record number of British casualties since the start of the war, with more than 150 seriously wounded within a week, defence officials said yesterday. The figures are in addition to the 18 soldiers killed so far this month.

Experts said the death of another British soldier and the row over helicopters masked a wider issue: the new strategy is nearly identical to the old one of using military force to secure an area before bringing in development and governance. The one difference is the use of an additional 17,000 troops.

“As in the past, it has proved relatively easy to push the Taliban out of an area,” said Gareth Price of the Chatham House thinktank. “The question now is whether the Afghan state has the ability to garner genuine public support. It is that popular support, and not just military power, that will prevent the Taliban returning once the western troops have left.”