Tuesday, December 08, 2009 LONDON: The British death toll in Afghanistan this year reached 100 on Monday as another soldier was killed in the violence-scarred country, but London insisted the increasingly unpopular fight is not in vain. The soldier, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, was killed by small arms fire in Nad-e Ali in the troubled southern Helmand Province, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. His death brings to 237 the total number of British troops who have died in Afghanistan since operations began in October 2001. At least 205 were killed as a result of hostile action.Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement that every loss was a "real and personal tragedy", adding that British troops had to complete their mission. "We will never forget those who have died fighting for our country and we must also honour their memory. That means staying the course, doing what is right for Britain, and seeing this mission through," he said.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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