Eight U.K. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in separate attacks, the worst day ever for the United Kingdom's armed forces during the current conflict.
As news filtered into England about the deaths Prime Minister
Gordon Brown was quoted by the BBC while at the G8 summit in Italy:
"This is a very hard summer, it's not over but it's vital that the international community sees through its commitment [to Afghanistan]," he said.
"There's a recognition that this is a task that the world has got to accept together.
"We must and we will do everything we can to support our forces as they put their lives on the line."
This
morning three
soldiers died in separate incidents while fighting in the Middle Eastern nation. One died in an explosion and another died from a gunshot wound during a battle with insurgents near Lashkar Gah. The soldiers were with the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment and 4th Battalion The Rifles. The third soldier from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment was killed when his vehicle was hit while traveling.
Five soldiers were killed in two separate explosions on the same foot patrol later in the day. The soldiers were with the 2nd Battalion the Rifles. They were killed near Sangin.
Since 2001 184 British troops have been slain in Afghanistan.
The Guardian reports:
Bernard Jenkin MP, a member of the Commons defence select committee, said: "It is astonishing that we are fighting high intensity operations the scale of Afghanistan on a peacetime budget without enough protection mobility and with fewer helicopters per head for armed forces than we had three years ago."
The airwaves have sent the horrible news that nine more British soldiers perished in Afghanistan on Friday raising even more doubts in the nation concerning the human cost in this war. Today's news follows a week of heavy causalities with ten soldiers being killed in just ten days.
Taiwan News reports:
"The casualties should fix peoples' minds on the fact that we've let the soldiers down," said Adam Holloway, a Conservative Party lawmaker who sits on Parliament's defense committee. "The death toll means we should do it properly or we shouldn't do it at all."
